AFC Leopards fire Belgian head coach Minnaert

Kenyan Premier League giants, AFC Leopards have fired Belgian coach, Ivan Jacky Minnaert, with immediate effect with his assistants, Ezekiel Akwana and Nicholas Muyoti taking charge until the end of the season.

Speaking to Citizen Digital on Thursday, club chairman, Dan Mule, said the executive took the decision owing to a string of poor results that sees the club languishing closer to the relegation zone and with no hope of challenging for a trophy this season.

The recently elected club boss also accused the Belgian of losing the dressing room by treating his players and technical bench colleagues with disdain besides displaying arrogance when his management was called into quastion by the executive.

“We have terminated his services to the club with immediate effect. If you can remember when Minnaert came in, we were in position two and know we are in tenth. We are out of GOtv Shield and Top 8 so as we are speaking, we are not sure whether we are going for relegation or we will survive.

Mule added they would decide before the end of the campaign on whether to seek a local successor or venture overseas saying the Belgian who was appointed in February showed little regard of his contract with the club.

“We have tried to talk to him to get him work with his team but it seems he is using bad language against his assistant coach and the players, even abusing them. Changing a player without any good reason and you have a crucial game.

“It seemed he had lost control of the dressing room, the team cannot perform well without unity. For now, we want to focus on the remaining matches, the assistant coaches under Akwana will be in charge assisted by Muyoti and the goalkeeping coach,” the Ingwe boss declared.

“At the moment, I cannot tell who will be in charge next season but we will plan before the season is over. When he came, he said he has no good players and we gave him permission to sign any player he wanted mid season and we have done anything he wanted.

“According to him, he even said in his contract that he has no target and he does not care,” Mule charged in expressing his disappointment with the Belgian who was brought in to return the club to its trophy winning tradition of the past.

A copy of the dismissal letter addressed to Minnaert informing him of the decision to send him through the door marked exit read in part, “We refer to previous warnings and the proceedings of the hearing of the Notice of Show Cause on 31st August, 2016 at the Secretariat.

“The club’s fans and members have raised concern about the current status of the team, we as the Executive did give you a chance to be heard on issues regarding continued undesirable results, serious and persistent misconduct by yourself.

“We have been left with no alternative than to terminate your contract as per clause 7 (b) and 7 (c) of the employment contract signed by yourself as a Head Coach.”

When contacted, the Belgian offered a dry, “I have no comment, the rumours could be true or not.”

Life at the Den started with a charm when Minnaert was named Fidelity Coach of the Month in March when he led Leopards to the KPL summit in a run that had fans dreaming of emulating their arch rivals and champions, Gor Mahia and go the entire campaign unbeaten.

He became the first foreigner to win the award after leading Ingwe to the top after three victories and a draw, pocketing Ksh50,000 as part of the package that included the priceless 1-0 victory over titleholders K’Ogalo in his first Mashemeji Derby, a result that hastened the exit of Scotsman Frank Nutall from Gor.

“It is important to win this game. The tactic was to use speed and the goal we scored came from speed in the flanks. We are going to see, every match we are going to take the same philosophy, we are warriors, we are Leopard warriors so we will go and kill the rest,” he said in the afterglow of the victory.

Things started heading south when he suffered his first defeat at the hands of struggling Nairobi City Stars on April 3 before the massive mid season clear out that saw 16 players leave the Den and another 13 come in.

Last weekend, the club that is tenth, 15 points behind leaders Tusker (44) in the KPL log were blown apart 3-0 by Western Stima in the GOtv Shield round of 16 to end all hopes they had of challenging for honours this season.

It was the result that broke the proverbial camel’s back as club management moved swiftly to end his tumultuous seven months at the Den.