Johannesburg – Deep divisions within the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) are to blame for yet another failure by Danny Jordaan to secure a seat on the Caf executive, according to the SA Football Association.
Reacting after Jordaan lost out to Ahmad, the president of the Madagascar football federation, during Sunday’s vote at the Caf congress in Marrakesh, Morocco, Safa president Kirsten Nematandani said Cosafa had split the votes by sending as many as five candidates.
“As Cosafa we are divided,” the Safa president said. “We had six candidates (for two southern Africa slots on the Caf executive). One candidate pulled out and we were left with five. Other regions brought just two candidates, meaning there was no need to vote. Our region had the most number, and that shows we are not united.”
A second round of voting was necessitated by the fact that neither Ahmad nor Jordaan had secured an outright majority in the first round. Ahmad had garnered 25 votes in the first round of voting, to Jordaan’s 23, with Suketu Patel, the Cosafa president from the Seychelles, getting 33 and securing his seat.
The two then had to fight it out for an outright majority, which saw Ahmad triumphing with 27 votes, Jordaan slipping to 21 and missing out yet again on his attempt to win a seat on the all-powerful Caf executive.
“When we analyse this clearly we conclude that there are many other factors which influence the vote. You should know that Caf are the biggest federation in world football, so people outside the continent want to secure their own interests. How can you have two (Cosafa) representatives from the islands? When last did you see Madagascar or the Seychelles in any tournament?” Nematandani asked.
He’s convinced the next four years would be even more interesting now that Issa Hayatou, who was re-elected unopposed for a seventh successive term, has announced he’ll step down as Caf president in 2017.
“The balance on the Caf executive is tilted towards Francophone countries and there’s no doubt they’ll want to influence what happens (after Hayatou). The president (Hayatou) gave a very emotional speech, and it seems he will indeed vacate his position. We don’t know if he’ll anoint someone or not,” Nematandani said.
Jordaan, meanwhile, is not about to give up, in spite of this being his third failure to secure a seat on the Caf executive. After delivering Africa’s first World Cup here in 2010, his attempt to be one of Caf’s representatives at Fifa failed two years ago and, last year, he was trounced by Patel in his bid to be Cosafa’s president.
“We will have to go back to the drawing board,” Nematandani said. “But we firstly have to unite our region (Cosafa) because we won’t go anywhere at this rate.”
Other people voted on to the Caf executive at the weekend included Benin’s Moucharafou Anjorin, who spent six months in jail following allegations of embezzling sponsorship money, and Mali’s Amadou Diakite, who was banned for two years in 2010 by Fifa after being found guilty of bribery. – The Star