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The 38-year-old coach was ordered out of the country by immigration authorities, after he broke the law by working without a work permit, when he conducted two days of training sessions for the Warriors last year.

Saintfiet, who has now landed a job with a club in Jordan, has made astonishing claims that there was a plot to have him eliminated if he had returned to Zimbabwe to try and pursue his case to land the Warriors’ coaching post.

According to a Belgian website www.deredactie.be, Saintfiet told a daily newspaper in his home country that he feared for his life during his short stay here because of the problems that his arrival created in the country’s football family.

Saintfiet travelled by road to Botswana on the day he was asked to leave the country and stayed briefly in Francistown before moving back to Namibia.
“Tom Saintfiet travelled the 600 or so kilometres through the bush kilometres to the Zimbabwe-Botswana border under cover of darkness in a hire car,” said the website.
“He had hoped to return to Zimbabwe once the storm had died down.
“However, officials at the German Embassy in Harare that represents Belgian interests in Zimbabwe dissuaded him from doing so.”

According to the same website, Saintfiet told the newspaper that 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.”
No comment could be obtained from the German Embassy last night to verify Saintfiet’s sensational claims.
The deredactie website claimed that Norman Mapeza’s brother, Kennedy, who is a Fifa agent, was a key player in the problems that Saintfiet faced in his vain battle to be the Warriors’ coach.
“Mapeza’s brother is an official Fifa broker and as such has an interest in ensuring that his players feature in the national team,” said the website.

Saintfient’s job-hunting mission finally landed him a job with Jordanian club Nadi Shabab Al-Ordon.
Saintfiet had until his employment been listing Zifa as his employers on his Facebook profile.
The Belgian coach lasted less than a week in his employment with Zifa before the Department of Immigration ordered him out of the country.
The Flemish coach was appointed to head the Jordanian team two weeks ago.
He is back in Namibia preparing for a return to the Middle East.

The coach told the Namibian newspaper, The Sun, that he was looking forward to winning the league title in Jordan.
“Technically, the level of the team is very good and the players are highly motivated, so I am confident that we can compete for the league title,” he told The Namibian Sun.
Saintfiet signed a contract with the club on December 29, 2010, and he will be making a return to the Arab world after having coached in Doha in 2004.
The nomadic coach’s new side is based in Amman and, according to the club’s official website, Saintfiet is now listed as their coach.

Saintfiet was presented with the team’s red and white jersey by club president Saleem Khair.
The club was established in 2002 and is considered one of the newest clubs in Jordan.
Since its establishment, the club has finished fourth in the Jordanian league in 2004 before winning the league in 2005 and also lifting the Jordan Cup in the same year.
In 2007, the club won the Asian Cup.

But as Saintfiet begins to settle in Jordan, he has painted an exaggerated picture of his experiences in Zimbabwe.
Media reports quote him saying he feared for his life in Zimbabwe at the time he was asked to leave.
The coach, however, believes there is a lot of football potential in this country.
He believes some Zifa board members were against his appointment to the national team post as they favoured Mapeza.

Saintfiet also failed in his bid to become the coach of lowly South African Premiership club Mpumalanga Black Aces when he lost the race to Frenchman Paul Dolezar.
Ironically, Dolezar also faced the same problems that Saintfiet encountered here when he was barred from sitting on the bench in Aces’ first match since his appointment, because his application for a work permit had not yet been processed.

Although Saintfiet has secured a job in Jordan, he has made it clear that he will pursue his case with Fifa to force Zifa to compensate him for breach of contract.
Saintfiet had signed a four-year contract with Zifa, but his hopes to become the Warriors coach were dashed when his application for a work permit was turned down by the country’s immigration authorities.
The Warriors are under the guidance of a caretaker coach Madinda Ndlovu who will lead the team at the CHAN finals in Sudan next month.
The Zifa leadership is trying to lure Charles Mhlauri to return home from his base in the United States and become the substantive coach of the Warriors.-The Herald