Norman Fegidero was tasked to handle the Philippine men’s football team on an interim basis following the sudden departure of coach Tom Sainfiet, the Philippine Football Federation announced Thursday.

PFF director of national teams Freddy Gonzalez also said that Fegidero will be aided by women’s team coach Mark Torcaso and his assistants for next week’s Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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Fegidero’s appointment came after Saintfiet left his post to accept the offer of coaching the Mali national team. Fegidero, who had coached the Philippines in 2008, was part of Saintfiet’s staff.

Gonzalez said the temporary setup allows the federation time to undergo a search for Saintfiet’s permanent replacement.

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

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Torcaso became a surprise inclusion to Fegidero’s staff despite exclusively handling the Filipinas since being tapped as Alen Stajcic’s replacement post-World Cup in 2023. Torcaso recently held a week-long camp for the Filipinas at Rizal Memorial Stadium.

His staff composed of Andrew Durante, Sinisha Cohadzic and Garrath McPherson will also be with the men’s side for the Merdeka tourney slated Sept. 4 against host Malaysia and Sept. 8 against either Lebanon or Tajikistan in the third place or final.

“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,” said Gonzalez. “It’s unusual to see a crossover of staff from separate teams, but it’s a situation that required a novel solution.

“This temporary fix will give us much needed time to pin down a permanent head coach,” he added.