JOHANNESBURG – An angry Danny Jordaan lashed out at allegations made by Ace Ncobo that Saturday’s Safa elective congress was “illegal and unlawful”, calling the comments made by the former referee “nonsense”.
Jordaan stood unopposed in the Safa presidential race after Ncobo withdrew in the morning of the elective congress that was held at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Ncobo said he withdrew after he was threatened by a delegate who said he will smash his head and as a matter of principle as he alleges that these elections were “riddled with procedural flaws, missed time frames and gross constitutional violations”.
Jordaan was re-elected for another five-year term, getting 95.12% of the votes. He received 234 of the 246 votes with two voting against, one spoilt and the others either absent or abstaining from voting.
Jordaan reacted angrily to the question of what he makes of Ncobo’s statement that he retained his position from elections that were “illegal and unlawful”.
“No! No! No! You guys must stop nonsense! It’s nonsense. Absolute nonsense! And you only do it to football? Why do you do that?”
When told that the accusation comes from Ncobo and not the media, Jordaan still labelled them as nonsense.
“Some of you actually wrote (his allegations) as if it’s true,” Jordaan said. “It’s nonsense. Here you are, witnessing these elections. You are sitting in the room. (Editor’s note: The media was called inside after the presidential elections were done, only witnessing the elections for the council members).
“You look for yourselves. We have in this room the electoral committee. Some of these men are senior advocates. They acted as judges in the Supreme Court in this country. In this room we have representatives from Fifa. So, it’s your choice, you can pick whose opinion you want to listen to.
“You listen to a Supreme Court judge, you listen to the Fifa representatives or you listen to an opinion that’s not based on anything. That’s your choice.
“As journalists, you have the right. You have the pen, you write what you like and we grant you that licence.”
Jordaan briefly spoke about what he intends to achieve in his new term that will end in 2023. At the top of the list is the establishment of a women’s national league and bidding to host the women’s World Cup.
He was noncommittal on whether he would run for a third term as Safa doesn’t have a limit on how many terms its president can serve.
“I haven’t even sat on the chair and you’re asking me when are you going? Let me meet the new executive (that was elected on Saturday),” Jordaan said.
“The counting is underway, you will see an open and transparent process. It’s not as if you’re hearing this from someone else. This process was thorough. Where people raised issues, we stepped back to say we don’t want a discredited election.
“Let’s go back. On Friday, there was an attempt to stop these elections. It was dismissed by the court. The court said proceed. Fifa said proceed. What else do you want?”
@NJABULON
IOL Sport
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Danny Jordaan responds to the recent claims made by Ace Ncobo.