Johannesburg - It was a day and night of drama which ended when outsider Kirsten Nematandani was elected unopposed as the new president of the South African Football Association at a stormy annual general meeting held in Kempton Park on Saturday.

Nematandani, who heads the SAFA Referees Committee, will have Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana and Mandla "Shooz" Mazibuko as his vice presidents. Both men were also elected unopposed.

Nematandani's shock election is seen as a huge victory for the Football Transformation Forum (FTF) of which Danny Jordaan, one of the other presidential candidates, is the head.

It appears Jordaan and the FTF outmanoeuvred his greatest rival for the SAFA presidency, Irvin Khoza, in a tense stand-off which resulted in both men withdrawing from the presidential race on Saturday night.

The drama started early in the morning with 120 police officers who were on duty at the OR Tambo Southern Sun hotel searching vehicles for guns and weapons.

The authorities were worried violence could rear its head as two of the biggest heavyweights in soccer, Khoza and Jordaan, were determined to go head-to-head for the biggest prize in local soccer - the SAFA presidency.

There was trouble between rival supporters of Jordaan and Khoza at a previous SAFA meeting which led to a fist fight.

Both Khoza and Jordaan were the leading lights in bringing the 2010 World Cup to South Africa. Jordaan is the 2010 Local Organising Committee CEO while Khoza is chairman of the 2010 LOC.

But both wanted more. They wanted control of SAFA .

It was obvious from the start that the AGM, in which delegates would be voting for a new president to replace outgoing Molefi Oliphant, was not going to be easy. The two fierce rivals in soccer, Jordaan and Khoza, were expected to go head to head for the biggest job in South African soccer with Nematandani as the rank outsider.

But after claims from both camps that Jordaan and Khoza were ineligible, the meeting stalled at around 3pm when judge Ralph Zulman and senior council Ismael Semenyane were asked to mediate and decide if either or both candidates were able to stand.

The Premier Soccer League, of which Khoza is chairman, alleged Jordaan, as a paid SAFA official, was not eligible to be president of SAFA .

Jordaan's FTF hit back by citing that constitutionally, as PSL chairman, Khoza was prevented from standing as a candidate for the SAFA presidency.

The FTF had earlier in the meeting won a crucial vote over another issue by 126 against 112, showing that Jordaan's FTF had the majority and once he withdrew in favour of another member of the FTF Nematandani, Khoza then decided to throw in the towel and also withdrew leaving the floor open to Limpopo-based Nematandani who was elected unopposed.

It was a major victory for Jordaan and his FTF who have pledged to shake up the way soccer in South Africa has been run.

Khoza left the meeting without speaking to the media, while Jordaan was full of smiles when meeting members of the media who were refused entry to the AGM but said he would speak later after Nematandani's first press conference as Safa president.