Danny prepared to stand again ... if nominated

JOHANNESBURG: A date has been set for the South African Football Association (Safa) elections next year, and incumbent president Danny Jordaan confirmed yesterday that he would put his name in the hat for another term – if nominated.

He said he will know whether he will get a crack at another four years to see through Vision 2022 by mid-February, when all the Safa regions put forward their candidates.

Jordaan was elected president in September 2013, succeeding Kirsten Nematandani and beating Mandla Mazibuko, by 162 votes to 88 from the 52 regions within the association.

The elections for a new executive will be held on March 24 next year.

“We... had anticipated that we would qualify for the (World Cup) in Russia and would therefore only hold the election in September,” Jordaan said.

“But seeing that is no longer the case, why wait? It is best to give the new executive, whoever they may be, more time to start now and build towards 2022.”

“If I am nominated, then, probably, yes (I will seek re-election),” he said.

“If they (the regions) so decide and feel we must complete the project – our junior players are coming through and we have to get more quality coaches into SA football.

“I am very happy with the fact that during our term, we have seen the transformation of coaches in the PSL.

“When we started, most of the coaches, if not all of them in the league, were foreign coaches. Today I don’t even know how many foreign coaches there are. They are by far in the minority.”

Does Bafana Bafana’s failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup not reflect poorly on his term in office?

“There will be reward and punishment for what we have done and not done during the time the current executive was in charge, that is just the way of life,” the Safa president said.

“I am excited with what has been achieved, but the (next ) four years is going to be quite demanding.”

Nominations open in the middle of January and close mid-February.