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Johannesburg - Newly-elected SA Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani has pledged to transform and revitalise South African football from the grassroots to Bafana Bafana.
This means that under-achieving Bafana head coach Joel Santana is going to have wake up if he hopes to keep his job.
The Football Transformation Forum -- of which both Nematandani and 2010 local organising committee chief executive officer Danny Jordaan are members -- is unhappy with Bafana's slide and poor form, and said Santana's 16-month reign would be under the microscope if one of them became president.
Santana will now have to pull up his socks and get the national squad back on track to compete at next June's World Cup finals if he hopes to keep his job.
The new SAFA boss is prepared to give Santana, who looks out of his depth, another chance despite FTF threats to fire him.
Explained Nematandani: "I simply cannot fire the coach (Santana) after being in office only two hours. But I will make an informed decision once I have all the facts. We need Bafana to succeed at the World Cup. But now we must show support to the national coach and turn around Bafana's fortunes. I want to make sure that he is utilising all resources at his disposal."
Nematandani is aware that Santana is failing after he bizarrely claimed that beating a weak Madagascar side rated 131st in the world 1-0 last weekend was a good result. Bafana had lost six successive matches previous to playing the weakened Madagascar side.
The new SAFA boss has assured world controlling body FIFA that his new executive committee will produce the best ever World Cup next June.
He has also promised to end the cult of personalities within the higher echelons of South African soccer.
He said: "Soccer is the people's game and as SAFA we must give it back to the people.
The Limpopo-based Nematandani was the shock winner at Saturday's marathon Safa annual general meeting held in Kempton Park where he was elected unopposed after both heavyweights and bitter rivals Jordaan and Irvin Khoza withdrew their nominations for the presidency.
Nematandani replaces the outgoing and largely invisible Molefi Oliphant as president.
The animosity between Jordaan and Khoza had been capturing the headlines for months in the build-up to the meeting.
After the meeting was held up for hours while delegates debated whether or not both Jordaan and Khoza were eligible to be elected as president for various reasons, Jordaan surprised by withdrawing from the race.
Khoza the Premier Soccer League chairperson also decided to throw in the towel, which left the way for the Nematandani, the chairperson of SAFA's Referee's Committee to snatch the most coveted soccer position in the country.
Nematandani said: "I am humbled to be elected and ready for this great challenge. As a leader I am a servant of the people. What I bring to the table will be a president who cares and will make sure we have stability, accountability and principles. We (the SAFA executive committee) aim to take soccer in our country to a new level. That means hard work from everyone involved. We are determined to succeed and be the best SAFA we can be."
He said what had heartened him was the fact that after the meeting both Jordaan and Khoza shook hands and said they would continue to work to produce a memorable 2010 World Cup finals. Khoza is the chairman of the 2010 local organising committee.
There was no love lost between him and Jordaan prior to the hotly-contested elections.
Said Nematandani: "There were fears about Safa and the World Cup would suffer due to the elections, but that ended with the handshake between Jordaan and Khoza. Fifa had observers at the meeting and they left satisfied that we are well on track to produce a superb World Cup."
Nematandani said he also wanted to get the support of the media: "I am not interested in praise-singers rather get constructive criticism from the media. I need your help," he told reporters.
He also said he was willing to learn. He said: "I promise to talk less and listen more. I am open to new ideas."
Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana and Mandla Mazibuko were elected unopposed as SAFA vice presidents.
