Updated | Malta FA sacks national team football coach

Tom Saintfiet, Malta's national football team coach, who was appointed last October, has been fired by the Malta Football Association after reports that he responded to a call made by the Cameroonian Football Federation.

The Association said that, after an analysis of the situation and a meeting with Saintfiet, it took the decision to terminate his employment contract with immediate effect.

Earlier

In comments to MaltaToday, Saintfied stressed he had “never applied for the job in Cameroon, or any other job, and I never authorised or gave a mandate to anyone to apply such a job. It is totally incorrect".

Asked why he had removed a Facebook post which he had put up earlier today, where he had denied applying for the Cameroon post, Saintfiet said that the only reason he had deleted it was due to pejorative comments he had received.

“I had applied for the Cameroon job in 2012, 2014 and 2015, but this year I am very happy to be in Malta with my family and have a long-term commitment. I have no reason to apply anywhere else, and I never sent any application,” he underlined, adding that his name might have cropped up because someone else - such as an agent - could have applied in his name, with him not having a clue this had happened.

“There are agents who do it without informing the coaches,” he said, “It is very easy to make a CV and send an email - there is no difficulty to apply for someone else, but I have not applied for the job in this moment in time. There are other coaches in my situation - [former France international manager] Raymond Domenech already announced that he also did not apply and has no interest in the job.”

“The Cameroonian Football Federation also said that many coaches do not know that someone applied in their name.”

Saintfiet confirmed he had met with the Malta Football Association to discuss the matter.