Why is Safa scared of a contest?

Since the announcement that the SA Football Association (Safa) will hold its elective conference next month, a number of interesting names have been put forward as potential candidates to take over local soccer’s top seat.

After much speculation, former Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba eventually broke his silence this week.

He confirmed to this newspaper that he has been asked to challenge incumbent president Danny Jordaan, the man who fired him as the national team coach in December 2016. Mashaba’s pronouncement follows hot on the heels of Tokyo Sexwale also being bandied about as a potential contender in the race.

Other candidates to have expressed interest include former Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe and former Safa national executive committee members Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana and Nakedi Lekota.

A common denominator among the groups who have publicly backed the aforementioned individuals has been the use of “change” as a keyword in their campaigns.

Amid calls to change the status quo, we are worried at the manner in which the current Safa leadership has reacted to this.

Safa has been so quick to dismiss the likes of Radebe, Nonkonyana and now Mashaba, as being ineligible to contest the elections.

While Mashaba and Nonkonyana’s eligibility can be a topic for another day, we wonder why Radebe – who serves in the federation’s technical committee – is deemed ineligible.

Perusing through the Safa electoral code under “Candidates” – criteria for eligibility for elective office in Safa – it states that “a member in good standing of any Safa structure” qualifies.

There is no elaboration on what it means by “any” or “structure”.

It is clear the status quo will remain as far as leadership in football is concerned with the Safa electoral code also prohibiting “any person running for a position in the national executive committee of the association, who does not have more than 10 years of experience serving in a football structure under the jurisdiction of the association”.

Since it has been proclaimed that “it’s Danny Jordaan all the way”, we can’t wait to see the final nomination list come February 22.