The Belgo-Moroccan tactician has been axed as handler of the Ocean Stars by the country’s football governing body
Abdellatif Salef has been sacked as coach of the Somalia senior national team after less than three weeks in charge.
Following the dismissal of Said Abdi Haibeh as handler of the Ocean Stars over poor performances, in May 2021, the Belgo-Moroccan tactician was named as his replacement on a two-year deal.
"Somalia is a football nation. Since my arrival in Mogadishu, I have always seen children playing on the streets of Mogadishu, so it shows that Somalia is a football-mad country,” Salef said.
He was expected to lead the team in the preliminary match of the Fifa Arab Cup Qatar 2021 against Oman on June 20.
He has been shown the way out in less than one month by his employers who labelled him as 'incompetent'.
“Somali Football Federation, has today 15, June 2021, announced the sacking of Abdellatif Salef, a Belgium national of Moroccan origin, less than three weeks after his appointment as Ocean Stars head coach,” a statement from SFF read.
“He doesn’t possess the professionalism that a national team coach should have. He continuously used abusive words against the players, he maltreated them since taking charge of the team and he doesn’t have good behaviour.
"The players were unhappy with his training sessions, as his skills and experience are not those of national team standards, while he didn’t even come up with a training plan.
“The coach failed to cooperate with his technical team as well as the players. The sacking of the coach comes several hours before Somalia were due to encounter Djibouti in a friendly match on Tuesday evening.”
The Somali football ruling body is expected to announce a replacement in the coming days.
Since playing their first international game against Kenya in 1958, the country is yet to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations and the Fifa World Cup.
Currently, they are ranked as the 52nd best team in Africa and no. 197 in the world according to June's Fifa rankings.