Cape Town - SAFA president Danny Jordaan says CAF not backing Tokyo Sexwale for the FIFA presidency was detrimental to his campaign.
According to Eyewitness News, Jordaan was not present at the FIFA congress last week as the world watched on as to who will be elected as Sepp Blatter’s successor.
After two rounds of voting, former UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino was chosen to head FIFA for the next four years.
In attendance and representing SAFA alongside Sexwale was CEO, Dennis Mumble and National Executive Council member, Natascha Tschiclas.
Jordaan revealed that prior to the congress, CAF held a meeting with SAFA while Sexwale was also present.
“I was at the CAF meeting in Kigali, Rwanda where Tokyo was present. He had a meeting with the CAF Executive and I think that there are things that they put to him there as to why they found it difficult to support him and I think when we left Kigali it was clear that CAF was not going to support him,” said Jordaan.
“Jerome Champagne had no endorsement from any continent and so did Prince Ali and Tokyo, so it was always going to be tough for those candidates who must compete against candidates who actually have two continents endorsing them. I think we then understood that it was going to be difficult for Tokyo.”