The suits’ shenanigans make players sweat
Breaking news on Radio Gobbledygook: Janny Dordaan goes on voluntary suspension. The sport administrator disclosed his decision to close confidants after informing them that his conscience can no longer allow him to continue in his position while under investigation by the Eagles on allegations of snoozing during a brainstorming session.
This is a running story, and we will bring you an update as and when it happens.
Of course, the above is all balderdash served on a tray of dried bovine dung.
The real-world story is that the South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan has taken no such decision. The Safa boss has showed no signs of being affected by the recent search and seizure raid conducted by the Hawks at the organisation’s headquarters on fraud and theft allegations, accusing him of using R1.3m of the organisation’s resources for his personal gain between 2014 and 2018.
Of course, the first citizen of South African football is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We live in a country where screaming headlines of corruption no longer send shockwaves to the system. The abnormal has long become the new normal.
What screams loudly is the deafening silence from those with whom Jordaan presides over matters football at the south of Joburg HQ save for the press release in which Safa dismissed the Hawks raid as “shameful, unlawful, malicious and not conducted in terms of the directives of a warrant given to us”.
Nothing about we have asked our president whether he flouted the rules of the governing body by unlawfully signing a contract for the services of PR company Grit Communications to prop up his image after musician Jennifer Ferguson accused him of rape, and he assured us that not a penny of Safa money was used towards dealing with the aftermath of what happened in a Nelson Mandela Bay hotel room.
We don’t know what we don’t know. What we know is that a concerned voice about the Hawks operation came from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) when it expressed its disquiet about the respect and image of football in South Africa following the raid.
The Patrice Motsepe-led body wants a report “indicating that Safa and its president, Dr Danny Jordaan, at no stage and under no circumstances, violated or breached the Caf and Fifa statutes and regulations”.
We can only wonder whether the Safa national executive committee (NEC) members at any stage paused and asked themselves why their president would sign off on a contract a duty which is an administrative function.
You have a better chance of seeing convicts revolting against shorter sentences than the Safa executive members moving a motion of no confidence against their president. One suspects the happy honorarium recipients are loath to spoil the stew served from a perceived pot of patronage, and would rather leave things as they are in the football palace.
The disconcerting thing is that the latest shenanigans soil the efforts of footballers whose sweat is giving the sport some glow. Women and men of our country are putting their best feet forward.
Banyana Banyana don the crown of queens of the African football castle. In a major forward step for women’s football, Desiree Ellis’ golden girls made history by becoming the first SA national team men or women to reach a Fifa World Cup round of 16.
The Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies FC are the two-times African Champions League winners, two-times Cosafa Cup winners and were voted Caf club of the year in 2022 and 2023.
Even a perpetual pessimist can’t scoff at the heartwarming bravery Bafana Bafana showed en route to claiming bronze at Afcon in Ivory Coast. Fans want to watch, cheer, and jeer the artistry of the players and are less enthralled by the shenanigans of the suits.
The latest development on the breaking story is tuuuuu… News feed stopped because of load-shedding, and the generator could not kick in because it was expropriated without compensation by gun-totting men in broad daylight yesterday.