Tom Saintfiet claims plot to murder him

By Edward Marange

Tom Saintfiet the Belgian coach whose appointment as Zimbabwe National team coach was botched by immigration issues has made sensational claims that there was a plot to kill him if he had gone back to Zimbabwe to take up the post.

Zimbabwe poached the 38 year old Belgian from Namibia in a much publicised tug of war. But a heated debate over whether to appoint a foreign coach or local one, suddenly culminated in the Immigration Department declining to issue Saintfiet with a work permit and ordering him out of the country.

Saintfiet is reported to have travelled 600 kilometres through the bush to the Zimbabwe-Botswana border under cover of darkness in a hire car. He hoped to return once the storm had died down. However, officials at the German Embassy in Harare that represents Belgian interests dissuaded him.

A top official at the German Embassy in Harare “warned him that there was a real chance that he would be murdered if he returned.” Saintfiet has now landed a coaching job with a club in Jordan but says he will pursue his case with Fifa to force Zifa to compensate him for breaching his four year contract with them. Nehanda Radio.com