Jordaan climbs down
ABOUT-FACE: SAFA BOSS CHANGES HIS TUNE, SAYING HE ACCEPTS RULING
PSL chairman Irvin Khoza admits there was no alternative.
Renowned in no small degree as a verbal trapeze artist of some considerable note, the somersault enacted by Safa president Danny Jordaan this week regarding the tainted World Cup qualifier in which Bafana Bafana controversially beat Senegal 2-1 is of mind-boggling proportions.
Fifa have now ordered the match must be replayed following the life ban the world body imposed on referee Joseph Lamptey – thereby seemingly delivering the final nails in the coffin of South Africa’s slim prospects of qualifying for next year’s pinnacle event in Russia.
But when Fifa first announced Lamptey’s banning after both Bafana’s goals in the Senegal game were of a conspicuously suspect nature and the possibility of a replay was first mooted, Jordaan unequivocally declared “we will not accept it”.
Then, going on to elaborate: “If you start replaying matches when referees make mistakes there will be no end to it – and our position is that referees’ decisions are final.”
But at a media conference held on the outskirts of OR Tambo Airport four days ago, Jordaan performed a backflip while announcing that Safa would accept Fifa’s ruling.
“Our position is quite clear on the issues of match-fixing and manipulation and we cannot benefit from such and take the points,” – adding that it was a moral and ethical issue.
And yesterday, PSL chairman and Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza, who is also a vice-president of Safa, was adamant there was no alternative but to accept Fifa’s ruling.
“To make their decision,” added Khoza, “Fifa must have pretty strong evidence regarding Lamptey, with the referee’s life ban now also confirmed on appeal.”
Intriguingly, however, the motivation behind the manipulation of the result in the relevant Bafana-Senegal game remains a mystery, with no disclosure as to who or what prompted Lamptey’s actions.
Jordaan, nevertheless, made the point that neither Safa nor the Senegal Football Association had been implicated by Fifa in this respect – and he also distanced Safa from any suggestions that Fifa’s Senegalese-born secretary-general had played a role in ordering the replay that must now take place before the end of November, along with Bafana’s other remaining World Cup qualifiers against Senegal (away) and Burkina Faso (home).
For the record, Bafana will, as a minimum, need to win all three remaining matches to achieve the herculean task of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals – and even this might not be sufficient to head the required Group D qualifying segment, depending on the results of other games.