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Johannesburg - Safa president Danny Jordaan has been nominated by the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) to run for the vacant position in the Fifa council.
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Jordaan’s candidature was endorsed at a special Cosafa executive meeting, held in Johannesburg on Friday.
Another major decision taken at the meeting was to second Cosafa’s vice-president, Zimbabwe’s Phillip Chiyangwa, to the CAF executive committee to replace Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya.
The latter was recently slapped with a two-year ban by the world football governing body, Fifa, for violating its statutes.
The Fifa post became vacant in June, after Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi resigned on the eve of the World Cup in Russia.
This, after Nyantakyi was caught on camera accepting a $65 000 (R990 405) “bribe” in a sting operation.
While in Russia for the World Cup, CAF took the decision that Nyantakyi’s position in Fifa would be filled by a candidate from an Anglophone country in the spirit of fair play.
Going into Friday’s Cosafa meeting, there were three candidates: Jordaan, Malawi’s Walter Nyamilandu-Manda and the Seychelles’ Elvis Chetty.
The three candidates were given an opportunity to make presentations on their views about African and global football before a vote was taken by the presidents from the 14 member countries.
Jordaan came out tops with Nyamilandu-Manda getting four votes and Chetty garnering only two.
The ultimate vote for the individual who will join the Fifa council will be conducted at CAF’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, on September 30.
Should Jordaan – who had been cleared as an ineligible candidate by Fifa before Friday’s meeting – emerge victorious, he will be the first member of the global body’s council (previous known as the executive committee) to come from the southern African region since the expulsion of Ismail Bhamjee in 2006.
Currently, the six African zones are represented by two members from north Africa and one each from central and east Africa.
CAF president Ahmad Ahmad is a Fifa vice-president by virtue of being a confederation president.
Should Cosafa vote as a block, as requested by Chiyangwa, Jordaan will need another 14 votes at least to get to the magical number of 28 that will guarantee him the position. CAF has 54 member associations.
Jordaan, who was the CEO of South Africa’s 2006 and 2010 Fifa World Cup bid committees, and later occupied the same position in the 2010 Fifa World Cup local organising committee, has come short in two previous attempts to make it to the world football decision-making body.
He has instead served on several Fifa and CAF subcommittees, such as the television and marketing structure, and the Fifa World Cup assessment committees.
He has also been match venue commissioner in several World Cup matches.
He finally made it to the CAF executive committee in the 2017 watershed elections, when Ahmad finally toppled former African football strongman Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, who had been at the helm since 1987.
Jordaan is currently in his second term as Safa president, after being re-elected in March.
When asked about his nomination, all Jordaan was prepared to say was: “I note with thanks and appreciation the endorsement by Cosafa.”
