Following the sudden departure of Belgian Tom Saintfiet, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) on Thursday named former national team mainstay Norman Fegidero as interim coach as the national squad revs up for the Merdeka Cup next week.

“Given the circumstances, we needed to act quickly. Norman was the assistant coach in the last four games and was the obvious choice to take charge in the interim,” Director of Senior National Football Teams Freddy Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Fegidero will get help from the coaching staff of the women’s team composed of Mark Torcaso, Andrew Durante, Sinisha Cohadzic and Garrath McPherson.

“With some of our support staff departing along with Tom, we needed to bring in additional support.”

“Luckily for us, we have a great staff on the women’s side that was more than willing to answer the call for this tournament. It’s unusual to see a crossover of staff from separate teams, but it is a situation that required a novel solution. This temporary fix will give us much needed time to pin down a permanent head coach,” Gonzalez added.

‘With some of our support staff departing along with Tom, we needed to bring in additional support.’

Saintfiet, 51, decided to leave the Philippine team so he could bring his coaching expertise to Mali in Africa.

“From my first meeting with Tom this is something we had discussed that if a bigger opportunity came to him that I wouldn’t stand in his way. Tom came into the Philippine job with every intention of helping with our project, but his heart has always been African,” Gonzalez said.

“We thank him for his service and wish him well in his new role,” he said.

Saintfiet, who guided Gambia to its first quarterfinal appearance at the African Cup of Nations in 2021, has nothing but gratitude to the PFF during his brief stay.

“With pain in my heart I announce my departure as National Team Coach of the Philippines. PFF and I agreed to terminate the contract,” Saintfiet said.

“I would like to thank the president John Gutierrez, the director of national teams Freddy Gonzalez, the national team coordinator Mikkel Paris, my staff and players, the PFF, the fans and the media for the nice time we had together! I will miss you all and can only wish you good luck!”

“Me and my family will for sure return to the beautiful Philippines!”

Saintfiet only coached four games with the Philippines since his appointment last February, all of them in the second round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The Philippines lost twice to Iraq, 1-0, at the Basra International Stadium, and 5-0, at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, last May.

There were also losses to Vietnam, 3-2, in Hanoi and 2-0 to Indonesia in Jakarta.