Jordaan remains Safa boss

● Danny Jordaan, 70, has promised to step down as SA Football Association (Safa) president in 2026 after he was elected for a third term in a highly-charged elective conference in Johannesburg yesterday.

After his victory, Jordaan promised to revive Bafana Bafana’s fortunes while focusing his energy on building future stars by putting more resources at grassroots level — which the association has been criticised for ignoring in the last 20 years.

While accepting defeat, Safa’s former vice-president Ria Ledwaba, who challenged Jordaan in yesterday’s poll, vowed not to rest until she ensured that he was out of SA football.

Ledwaba said she was not disappointed with her underwhelming performance at the polls and vowed to continue to fight for football in SA. “I knew the odds were stacked heavily against me when I came here, but I think I fought a good fight and I still believe that Safa needs to change,” Ledwaba said.

“I believe that I have not lost today, in fact football has lost a servant. I’ve been a servant, I’m not in Safa for any position. I was in Safa for all these years to serve. I’m not leaving; you are going to hear a lot from me. Until Jordaan is out of football I will not rest.”

Jordaan outmuscled his challengers Ledwaba and Solly Mohlabeng in the presidential race to claim an overwhelming majority. He received 186 votes while Ledwaba got 27 and Mohlabeng managed just eight votes.

In the build-up to his victory, Jordaan had a number of people calling for him to vacate the office, as they felt he is not good for SA football. Under his leadership, Bafana Bafana have failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2014, 2018 and 2022, while they remain outside the top 10 sides on the continent.

However, Safa members, who are the voters, believe the experienced but controversial football administrator, showed with their votes yesterday that they’re still happy with him leading the organisation.

“For the next term, which is 2026 to 2030, I won’t be there. I must tell you now, this is my last term,” Jordaan said after being elected.

He said the priority in his next four years will be to grow women’s football, strengthen the sport in schools and implement strategies that will improve Bafana, such as the introduction of squad size limitations in the Premier Soccer League (PSL).

“We want a professional women’s football league. A professional league means a player earns enough from football to sustain their needs. They don’t need to work a second or a third job to sustain themselves. That’s where we want to be with the Women’s Super League.”

The elections were preceded by a neverending drama that included court cases, death threats and some Safa national executive committee members attacking the media for questioning Jordaan’s leadership.

There were at least three attempts to stop the election congress from taking place on yesterday but all the cases were thrown out of court for lack of urgency, including the one brought forward by Ledwaba in the Pretoria High Court.

Ledwaba had approached the court as she alleged several constitutional irregularities surrounding the elections.

Kannaland Local Football Association also approached the Western Cape High Court to interdict the elections, but they were dismissed with costs. Safa Vhembe had the same outcome at the Pretoria High Court.

In the build-up to the election, Ledwaba seemed to enjoy a lot of support but her “overwhelming” backing was from people that are not in the Safa structures and not eligible to vote.

It didn’t come as a big surprise for many when Mohlabeng got just eight votes as he was hardly mentioned during the build-up to the elections.