EXCLUSIVE: SAFA President Danny Jordaan laments "people who play politics with South African football"

DYNAMIC DUO: Nelson Mandela and Danny Jordaan
celebrate South Africa being awarded the 2010 World Cup

NEWLY ELECTED SAFA president Danny Jordaan reacted with disbelief today when he was asked to respond to rumours suggesting kit sponsors Puma had “just” terminated their contract with Bafana Bafana.

Jordaan, elected to the top job on September 28 after a long-running battle with ineligible rival Irvin Khoza, Jordaan snorted: “This is so strange! How can you kill a person twice?

“Puma announced they were withdrawing their sponsorship on January 4 this year when Kirsten Nematandani was president. We have known about this for months. The Sunday Times wrote all about it eight months ago.

“But now, today, they say Puma have withdrawn. I have the letter from January showing Puma had already pulled out.”

Jordaan, who saw off Khoza’s proxy Mandla "Shoes" Mazibuko to win the presidency last month, always knew the knives would be out for him once he became the most powerful man in South African football.

Now 62, Jordaan has spent his life fighting against sporting injustice – he turned his back on his own cricket and football career and was banned for his part in the Apartheid sports boycott in the days when Khoza was not involved in sport (see these links http://www.iol.co.za/sport/a-tale-of-drugs-money-and-cars-1.90760#.UmACvdJHIXE and http://mg.co.za/article/2001-08-31-ghosts-come-back-to-haunt-the-iron-duke among many others) - and Jordaan remains confident he can lead South African football to a brave new era.

Only one winner: Khoza and Jordaan

Now a key part of CAF while helping Morocco and Brazil to prepare for upcoming AFCON 2015 and World Cup 2014 tournaments, Jordaan laughed: “Somebody is playing politics with South African football again. That’s what they do. But it doesn’t bother me, we have plans in place.

“Everyone’s saying sponsors are deserting SAFA now I’m president, but I can tell you the ABSA decision was taken BEFORE I took over.

“I have their letter, dated September 26. But people have their own agendas. They are putting politics ahead of football.

“As Gordon Igesund told you this morning Neal, we are ready with our Master Plan to change the face of our football. Our technical committee has come up with the names and our Under 17 and Under 20 teams will get new coaches and we will see a revival.

“We have the R500m FIFA Legacy Fund available to help with development, and we are dealing with that every day.

“These are the real stories. Not some eight-month old tale about a sponsor withdrawing. Please tell your friends: you can’t go to a funeral twice!”

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