JOHANNESBURG — With the South Africa Football Association (Safa) elections done and dusted, new president Dr Danny Jordaan will have little or no time to celebrate as he sets out to deliver on his campaign promises.
Reuters
The former SA 2010 Fifa World Cup chief executive takes over from Kirsten Nematandani following a 162-88 votes landslide victory over Mandla Mazibuko on Saturday. Jordaan had been the favourite for the hot seat since the announcement of the presidential candidates three weeks ago.
Last-minute court cases nearly disrupted the elections, but all cases were resolved in time for the elections. This, according to Jordaan, was a significant development for his camp.
“We started campaigning almost a year ago,” he said as he rushed from the election venue to address a waiting and impatient media in the building across the election venue. “But it was clear after this morning (Saturday) that we were on the right track.”
The Xhariep and Sisonke Rregions had taken their matters to the Johannesburg South Gauteng High Court on Friday as they were not happy with delegates selected to represent them. But this was referred back to the Safa Dispute Resolution Committee which resolved the matter on the same night.
Another matter involving Safa Capricorn Region was also dismissed by the High Court and referred back to the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.
The matter also resolved paved the way for a new Safa leadership.
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Once the voting for the presidential position was finalised, Jordaan emerged as a the winner. This prompted his rival Mazibuko to withdraw from the race for vice-president. This in an effort to save face, as it became clear that he would not garner enough votes to unseat any of the candidates from Jordaan’s camp.
That was followed by further withdrawals from Mazibuko’s camp for national executive positions. The vice-presidents’ positions went to Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana who garnered 197 votes, Lucas Nhlapo (173) and Elvis Shishana who got 167 votes. The other vice-president of the association is Premier Soccer League chairman, Dr Irvin Khoza.
Now, with the elections out of the way, the real work begins for Jordaan and his new executive.
“I am very happy that I have been given the honour and I have accepted that with the great challenges that are there, not as individuals but as a team, we have brand new members that are serving there,” he said.
“The challenge for all of us is the reconstruction and development of SA football and I have raised these issues before. We are insisting that we are a football nation and I say we are not.
“The footballing nations of the world — Germany is playing 80 000 junior matches over a weekend, Spain is playing 30 000 junior matches over the weekend and France is playing 40 000.
“If you find 3 000 matches in South Africa you’ll be lucky. That’s the first problem. We have to start at the level of LFAs (Local Football Associations) and regions, they must have junior leagues – under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19 regular competitions every weekend,” he said.
Jordaan said the second problem was “qualified coaches” saying SA had only 8 000 qualified coaches and the number was significantly lower than that of Spain. He said Spain had 12 000 coaches with A-Licenses while England had 8 000.
“If you find 25 coaches in SA with A-Licenses, you are lucky,” he said. “What you need is a total reconstruction and development of SA football starting at the base. The challenge is huge and the challenge is massive and we are ready to go.”
Another challenge will be in improving the image of the association so that football can be an attractive proposition to potential sponsors.
