Soccer
Jordaan seeks top FIFA post
2010-11-05 07:26
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Johannesburg - Danny Jordaan, the man responsible for organising the last Soccer World Cup, is now seeking to sit on the all-powerful FIFA committee that decides, among other things, where future World Cups will be played.
The 59-year-old South African administrator, whose term as chief executive officer of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Organising Committee ends next month, has been nominated by his country for a post on the FIFA executive committee, the 24-man inner cabinet that runs the game and takes all its major decisions.
"The World Cup profile is a big help," said Jordaan, who intends lobbying across the continent in the next months.
"It is important for me that Africa feels I can make a contribution," he said.
Two of Africa's four positions on the FIFA executive committee come up for re-election in February, one of them held by Nigerian Amos Adamu, who world football's governing body provisionally suspended last month.
Adamu was caught in a newspaper sting seeking money for his vote in next month's upcoming on where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be held.
The other African berth up for re-election is held by Jacques Anouma, president of the Ivorian Football Federation, who has not yet made public whether he will seek another four-year term.
Adamu is expected to try to hold on to his post if he is not expelled by FIFA, whose ethics committee will decide on his future this month.
Nominations for the posts close on November 23, three months before the election at the Confederation of African Football congress in Khartoum, Sudan. Jordaan is the first to make his candidacy public.
His experience in football administration, dating back more than two decades, and the successful organising of the World Cup will be key parts of his election campaign.
Jordaan said he had had a surge of support from African football associations and says he is confident of winning a place on the FIFA executive as well as the CAF executive.
Traditionally, administrators seeking to work their way up to the FIFA committee serve time first as members of the CAF executive, but Jordaan is attempting both at the same time.
A former history teacher and Parliamentarian, Jordaan almost single-handedly ran South Africa's two World Cup bid campaigns before taking over the organisation of the 2010 finals.