Former Orlando Pirates development and Lesotho national team coach, Thabo Senong, has found justice from the Tanzanian Premier League team, which left him stranded in a hotel room. FIFA has come down hard on Singida Fountain Gate FC for dismissing Senong in March this year and not paying him, leaving him stranded at a hotel in the East African country.
HE WANTS TO BE COMPENSATED
Senong took the team to FIFA and won his civil case. In his matter, he asked FIFA to look into his salary arrears and compensation for breach of contract. The club has since changed their name to Fountain Gate Club and relocated to a new venue. FIFA gave the club 45 days to make the payment and they still failed to do so. As part of the sanction, FIFA told the Tanzanian Football Federation to ban Fountain Gate from making any domestic transfers. Senong joined the team in September 2023 with fellow South Africans, goalkeeper’s coach Thembalethu Moses and biokineticist Kelvin Ndlomo. They were recruited to the team by German coach Ernst Middendorp. But Middendorp quit the team a month later, leaving Brazilian coach Ricardo Ferreira to coach the club, with Senong as his assistant. After quitting the club, Middendorp joined Cape Town Spurs in South Africa after complaining about management interference in his team selection. Senong, from Pimville, Soweto, stuck with the team as its head coach until he was fired on March 11.
TANZANIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION CONFIRMS
In a statement over the weekend, the Tanzania Football Federation confirmed that the club failed to pay Senong even after he won a case against them. . "He won the case and Fountain Gate was supposed to pay him within 45 days since the decision of FIFA was issued, but it did not implement it and caused it to be closed to register. However, Fountain Gate FC still continues to serve the ban on signing players as it has not yet paid the players Pascal Wawa, Bruno Gomes Barroso, and coach Thabo Senong, who won the FIFA case against the club," a statement from the Tanzania Football Federation added. Senong said he was not ready to talk about the matter.
