December 14 – SAFA president Danny Jordaan is one of three candidates vying for The Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) presidency.
The election will take place at Sun City in Rustenburg this Saturday, 17 December, with COSAFA chief operations officer Sue Destombes confirming this week that Jordaan will contest for the presidency alongside current boss Suketu Patel of the Seychelles, who is also the vice-president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), as well as Zimbabwe’s chief football man, Philip Chiyangwa.
“The Council of Southern Africa Football Associations will hold its annual general meeting on Saturday, December 17 at Sun City in South Africa, where the office-bearers for the next five years will be determined,” read Destombes’ statement.
“Elections will be held to decide the positions of president, vice-president and for the executive committee. Three nominations for the position of president were received prior to the November 2 deadline.
“These are for incumbent, Suketu Patel, South African Football Association president, Danny Jordaan and Zimbabwe Football Association president, Philip Chiyangwa.”
Jordaan also ran for the position five years ago, but pulled out at a late stage, saying at the time:
“I presented proposals to change the structure of Cosafa but it was very clear that out of the 14 countries, my proposals were always split 7-7. So I decided that people were not ready for a new direction and a new vision. “I will continue to work in football and perhaps I must spend more time strengthening my relationships (with other African administrators) on an individual basis.”
Jordaan was later appointed as an adviser to CAF president Issa Hayatou.
The 65-year-old Jordaan is said to hoping to use the COSAFA presidency, should he win it, as a springboard for an executive future position at CAF, and after that, FIFA.
Jordaan has just spent a year as the mayor of Port Elizabeth while still in charge of SAFA. His tenure ended in June this year but was unable to extend his stay of office after the Democratic Party (DP) beat the African National Congress (ANC) in the elections.
Instead of assuming his role as leader of the opposition as requested by his party, Jordaan has been absent from all council meetings, with the ANC declaring he was on ‘sick leave’ despite him appearing publicly in his role as SAFA president. He officially resigned from his position in October this year.
The DA have meanwhile reportedly requested the Public Protector to investigate Jordaan after he allegedly asked payroll officials to continue to pay former DA councillors, who had moved to the ANC, despite them no longer being employed by the municipality.
In 2015, Jordaan admitted that SAFA paid $10 million to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) in 2008.
Concacaf was led by former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who was later arrested by the FBI in connection with alleged corruption and bribery at FIFA.
But Jordaan said the money was in no ways related to South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup and was rather his country’s ‘contribution towards their (Concacaf’s) football development fund’ and was to ‘support the African diaspora’.
Last weekend SAFA announced a loss of R40 million for their financial year. There is currently uncertainty over the head coach, with Shakes Mashaba being suspended and set to face a hearing for a recent outburst which saw him calling into question the support he had received from his employers during the African Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers – African News Agency (ANA).
