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Zifa roped in Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet, who left Zimbabwe by road via Plumtree early yesterday morning, to lead the Warriors.
German Lutz Pfannestiel had been secretly recruited into the Warriors’ coaching staff and was yesterday depor-ted after being declared a prohibited immigrant for his failure to declare that he was a convicted criminal when he flew into Harare two weeks ago.

On another dramatic day for the Warriors and their technical team, Saintfiet left Harare on Tuesday night and crossed Plumtree Border Post into Botswana at around 6am yesterday after an overnight bus trip.
He then proceeded to Francistown.
The Belgian coach will remain holed up there while Zifa await the processing of his application for a work permit.
Zifa, however, appear to have bigger problems than just processing the work permit.

Assistant Regional Immigration Officer Mr Evans Siziba yesterday said: “We are in the process of filing charges against the Zifa board for employing and allowing foreigners to work in this country when their employment status has not yet been regularised by the country’s immigration authorities.”
He added: “The goalkeeper’s trainer (Pfannestiel) left the country today and departed from the Harare Inter-national Airport to South Africa.
“We directed Zifa that he should leave the country. Given that he had not disclosed his status as a convicted criminal when he entered the country, he was served with papers which pronounced that he was now a prohibited immigrant.”

The Zifa board allegedly allowed Saintfiet and Pfanne-stiel to work with the Warriors at training sessions on Monday and Tuesday.
In an interview with Sfm Radio yesterday, Zifa board member Benedict Moyo appeared to suggest Saintfiet could be back as early as this weekend.
He also appeared to dispute a story exclusively reported by The Herald that Pfannestiel was a convicted criminal and had been charged with match-fixing.
This is despite evidence on the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s official website showing Pfannestiel was tried and convicted for match-fixing.

Mr Siziba also put a damper on Moyo’s hope that Saintfiet could be back in Zimbabwe this weekend.
He said: “The process, in terms of the processing of the application submitted on behalf of Tom Saintfiet to be granted a work permit to be the coach of the Zimbabwe senior national team has started.
“But we have noted that the application has a lot of missing information that we require as part of the processing procedure and these include documents that should be provided by the Sport and Recreation Commission and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“We have also noted that it does not include the letter from the Namibian Football Association showing that they have terminated the coach’s contract and we will require all that information.
“We cannot grant a permit in a situation where the applicant has two valid contracts in different countries.”
Should Saintfiet get the permit, he will take over as the Warriors’ gaffer on a four-year contract under which he will be paid a net salary of US$8 000 a month and a US$2 000 winning bonus.

The other perks include payment of health insurance in Belgium and an apartment in Germany.
However, there were fears last night that Saintfiet’s work permit application could be affected by his links to Pfannestielf, the man he handpicked and brought here to be one of his assistants as a specialist goalkeeper’s coach in the Warriors’ set-up. Pfannestiel was thrown out of Zimbabwe yesterday, boarding a midday South African Airways flight to Johannesburg.

As Pfannestiel cleared immigration formalities, he was met by immigration authorities who charged him for providing false information in his declaration when he entered Zimbabwe.
The German coach’s troubles stemmed from the fact that he didn’t declare that he was a convicted criminal. Pfannestiel’s cover was blown yesterday when The Herald unmasked him as a match-fixing wizard who had served a five-month jail term in a Singapore jail nine years ago. He also served a one-year worldwide Fifa ban from all football activities for his part in a match-fixing scandal that rocked the South East Asian nation at the turn of the millennium.

He had been working in Namibia and was recruited by Saintfiet — who won the Zifa technical committee’s vote in the race for the Warriors’ coaching post — to join him in the Warrior’s technical team as a specialist goalkeepers’ coach. Pfannestiel was jailed for five months after being found guilty of agreeing to accept bribes from a bookmaker in exchange for influencing the outcome of three of the matches he played as a goalkeeper for Geyland United in 2001. He was arrested by Singapore’s crack Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau on July 30, 2000 at his home in Singapore after a bookmaker, arrested in connection with a match-fixing scandal, named him as one of the people involved in the scheme.

Australian striker Mairko Jurilj, who was playing for a team called Jurong at the time, shared lodgings with Pfannestiel.
Jurilj was also arrested and confessed to his part in the shadowy scheme in a written statement.
The duo was found guilty and jailed with Pfannestiel being punished for agreeing to let bookmaker Sivakumar Madasamy bet US$10 415 on the player’s behalf in exchange of influencing the outcome of three Singapore S-League matches.

He faced a jail term of up to five years but the court established that, despite his conviction for agreeing to accept bribes, the German goalkeeper never actually received the money because none of the three games went according to the match-fixing syndicate’s plans. Judge Hoo Sheau Ping said Pfannestiel and Jurilj “masterminded schemes” to fix games.
The Singapore Football Association banned the two players from playing in that country for life.

Fifa subsequently slapped them with a one-year ban each from football activities.
“Former Geyland United Football Club goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel was sent to prison for five months for accepting US$12 000 in bribes in return for match-fixing.
“In return, he would fix the results of the matches he played in. Lutz, as goalkeeper, would let in goals to influence the results,” reads the CPIB record.
Both the official review of the 2000 Singapore S-League and the Bleacher Report highlight the sensational match-fixing scandal.