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SAFA elections could be thrown into disarray

Johannesburg - Plans by the SA Football Association (Safa) to vote for a new president could be thrown into disarray.

On Friday, the SA Football Supporters Association (Safsa) asked Fifa to stop the elections. Safsa also accused Safa of violating its statutes and electoral code.

It has also questioned KPMG’s involvement in accepting nominations on behalf of Safa after the auditing firm terminated its contract with the football association last month.

“The gross irregularity here is that Safa’s previous auditor, KPMG, terminated the contract a year before it expired,” read Safsa’s letter to Fifa.

“In a strange, and perhaps collusive twist, KPMG agreed to stick around for the purpose of receiving the nominations. In what capacity is KPMG receiving nominations when it is no longer the appointed auditor?

“It is our submission that Safa does not have auditors, which means there is no entity to receive the nominations as prescribed by article 25.7.

“This reality obligates Safa to first go through the process of appointing an auditor before it can hold the elective general assembly.”

Safsa also claimed “several regions were ordered to submit nomination forms to the president of Safa for him to verify whether they had followed orders to nominate him.”

According to Safsa, this took place at a Football Transformation Forum (FTF) meeting.

City Press reported a fortnight ago that FTF’s leadership asked the regions to submit copies of their nominations to the forum.

Safsa also claimed some FTF members were stationed at KPMG offices to receive the nominations.

The auditing firm denied the allegations.

The firm said: “Representatives of Safa delivered the nominations to the KPMG team on Thursday for the purposes of verification.”

Safa chief executive Dennis Mumble said the allegations were patently untrue.

“It sounds like someone is trying to scandalise this process and we must strenuously object to it,” said Mumble on Friday.

“We have been transparent throughout the process, and cannot be comfortable with the Safa elections being singled out and cast as a sinister process when City Press does not do that with any other sports federation.

“According to the auditor, everything is on track. They will give me a report about the nominees today so I can send it to the members.

“We will publish the names of the candidates as per article 13 of the Safa electoral code,” Mumble said.

Earlier in the week, Safsa sent a letter to the auditing firm requesting it not to accept the nominations.

“Our client has instructed us to request KPMG to refrain from taking part in the electoral process of their former client,” read part of the letter from Safsa lawyers Tonise Attorneys.

“This violates Safa statutes and renders KPMG complicit in serious violations of other statutory imperatives that the association has violated in preparing for this elective congress. Chief among these violations was its failure to elect an electoral committee.”

“It is our sincere hope that Fifa will realise the gravity of this situation and how failure to act promptly might throw Fifa and Safa into disrepute because of a congress that lends itself to legal challenges.”

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