By Staff Reporter,
Tanzanian Football Federation(TFF) Executive committee chaired by President Jamal Malinzi has given Taifa Stars coach Martinus Ignatius Nooij popularly known as Mart Nooij an ultimatum requiring him to ensure the team qualifies for CHAN 2016 or else he will be fired.
(CHAN is an African Nations tournament for locally registered players).
The new developments come in the wake of poor perfomance by Taifa Stars in the ongoing Cosafa tournament in South Africa where they were knocked out after losing all their three matches against teams considered minnows.
The executive committee that met on Sunday in Dar Es Salaam reached the resolution to give the coach his last chance as their was hue and cry from the fans who called on his sacking after the poor show.
“The National team coach has been challenged by TFF to qualify for CHAN finals,if no success is achieved we will part ways”TFF President Jamal Malinzi said
“The executive committee met and decided to give the coach an ultimatum to ensure he qualifies for CHAN with the qualifiers slated for June this is after a spate of poor results in the ongoing Cosafa cup”Malinzi added
Nooij became a development trainer at the Royal Dutch Football Association. He worked for EVC 1913 in the United States and Kazakhstan. He was manager of the Burkina Faso U-20 team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. In 2004 he was temporarily assistant-coach at Dutch side FC Volendam.
In 2007 he was appointed head coach of the Mozambique national football team.[ As the manager of Mozambique he qualified the squad for the 2010 African Cup of Nations following a 12-year hiatus from the tournament finals. Mozambique finished bottom of their group with one draw and two losses. After failing to reach the 2012 African Cup of Nations, Nooij resigned from his managerial position in September 2011. He was replaced by German coach Gert Engels.
On 19 April 2012, he was named as the head coach of Premier Soccer League side Santos, but was sacked 18 December 2012.
In November 2013, Nooij became the head coach of the Ethiopian side Saint George and five months later, he accepted the head coaching job of Tanzania on 25 April 2014.