adminFootball, veteran South African administrator Danny Jordaan is now targeting to become the next Cosafa president.
Jordaan was on a surprise visit to Harare yesterday as part of a campaign in which he will be touring the Cosafa member associations to lobby for their support ahead of the regional bloc’s elections early next month.
In the capital, Jordaan met with Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze after which he addressed the media and spoke of his bid to also ensure increased co-operation between the South African Football Association and Zifa.
In his bid to secure a place on the world soccer governing body’s leadership, the chief executive of the Fifa 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee faced the challenges of Suketu Patel of
Seychelles, Algerian Mohamed Raouraoua, Nigeria’s Mohamed Galadima and Cote d’Ivoire’s Jacques Anouma.
He, however, lost that bid to be one of the African representatives on the world soccer governing body’s leadership with Raouraoua garnering 39 votes, Anouma walked away with 34, and Patel, who is also president of Cosafa polling 12.
Jordaan secured 10 and Galadima collected five votes at Caf’s 33rd congress in Sudan. Now Jordaan wants to replace Patel as Cosafa president and believes he has the vision to take the Southern Region game to another level.
Jordaan told The Herald on the sidelines of his media briefing that he had regrouped after his loss in Khartoum and felt he needed to start from the Cosafa level and help drive the game from the region.
The 59-year-old administrator, who has held several positions in South African football since 1976, made a passionate appeal to the associations in Cosafa to unite if the region was to make an impact in continental football and make their numbers count.
If elected, Jordaan also pledged to secure substantive sponsorship for the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup within two months of coming into office
“My plan has not changed, the vision I had before the Caf assembly is still the same and I would want to work hard to try and secure more corporate partnership for football in the region.
“I have just felt that the starting point should be Cosafa and then work hand-in-hand with Cecafa.
“I consider it as taking a step back in order to move forward, just like with a car, sometimes you need to put it into reverse gear in order to take the right direction forward,” Jordaan said.
He, however, did not mince his words in lamenting the divisions in Cosafa which he felt had pegged back the 14-memmber body and was evident at the Caf elections where the Southern African region fielded six candidates who were vying for positions on the Caf executive.
“When I was in Khartoum, I saw where the problem was and it was in the associations not being united.
“We have to be stronger as a region and we have to overcome our challenges. Nothing is impossible . . . even when we fought apartheid some people thought it was impossible to win over it but here we are.
“Zimbabwe have also had their challenges which they have managed overcome even when people doubted they would.”
Jordaan said he would use his influence to have major South African companies like Standard Bank, South African Breweries, MTN and Vodacom to sponsor leagues around the region.
“There are a number of South African companies present in many African countries and if Standard Bank, Vodacom, Breweries, and MTN sponsor football in South Africa, why not talk to them to do so in other countries too. As Safa we are going to strengthen our relationship with the key federations on the continent to realise the full football potential of the continent. For instance Zifa and Safa
could have more co-operation in youth competitions, administration and IT and the registration of players.
“There are a lot of areas we could discuss but I will only reveal these once I have met with Zifa. This is my initial visit to Zimbabwe but I will be back for a longer meeting and even a workshop,” Jordaan said.
Online Reporter