BREAKING EVERY RULE IN THE BOOK: weep no tears for Free State Stars and Aces, the PSL rolls on

SALUTE! Dr Irvin Khoza, PSL chairman
for 20 years, in a military uniform for no
apparent reason 

BILL SHANKLY, the legendary Scotsman who managed Liverpool from from 1959 to 1974, once said: “Football isn’t about life and death. It’s more important than that.”

Fortunately, South Africans don’t live by that code. Money is our God.

In large swathes of Europe, Latin America or even Asia and parts of northern Africa, your football club is your identity. It’s what defines you.

On a social night out, you will wear you team colours with pride; it says something about you, offers an instant introduction. Football is your small-talk, your bed-and-breakfast… in some nations like Spain, Egypt and Scotland, it signifies your tribe, your roots, your religion.

But not in South Africa. Here we don’t have segregated crowds, we don’t divide home and away fans on the way out of the ground with mounted police… and we don’t scare visiting teams when they visit our land for continental competition.

South African football is devoid of passion, wearing a football shirt, though still common, has little to do with identity or outlook. Ultimately, nobody cares. Our national football sides under-perform, our PSL attendances are at an all time low, the president of SAFA is almost entirely absent and openly admits “football is just my hobby”.

Football is the beautiful game, the global passion. But somehow, amid the more obvious horrors of Apartheid, we failed to pick up the essence of the game here at the southern tip of Africa.

Sound harsh? This off-season we found out just how little football means to the average South African. While our cricket and rugby types tend to stick to their local province like glue, we have seen two historic soccer clubs shut down and the very idea of hard-won promotion to the top flight dealt a fatal blow.

There has been no outcry, I have yet to spot an Mpumalanga Black Aces or Free States Stars fan, let alone a protest march packed with them.

Last year, when relegated Amazulu tried to purchase financially troubled Aces for R80m, the PSL rightly denied them the chance to buy their way back. Looking at this FIFA directive distributed in 2007, it’s easy to see why: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/circular_1132_en_34078.pdf

But this bleak mid-winter, things have taken a turn for the worse. First PSL executive member John Comitis, having left Ajax Cape Town after falling out with his in-laws, was allowed to buy Aces from the Morfou brothers for a price believed to be in the region of R50m.

He kept 14 of their players, released last year’s PSL top scorer Collins Mbesuma and moved the club 1000km south and renamed them Cape Town City. They already have a kit sponsorship and will spend the next 10 months attempting to destroy the established club in the Mother City.

As I speak, Technical Director Craig Rosslee admits the club need another 10 players to start the season. And former Orlando Pirates coach Eric Tinkler, neatly swapped with Aces boss Muhsin Etrugral at Aces, is sifting his way through a legion of cut-price journeymen to fill the gaps.

Then last night we had Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi telling Metro FM: “I have saved Moroka Swallows, we are back in the PSL” while refusing to divulge the name of the selling club, the name of the resurrected team and admitting: “The real Swallows will remain in Division Three, we will tell the fans that on Sunday”.

In all my footballing life, I have rarely heard such gushing nonsense from both Lesufi, an ambitious ANC politician, nor his interviewer Robert Marawa. He was asked no searching questions, just patted on the back and told he was a hero destined for the presidency.

BUYING FAVOUR: Article 30 of the NSL's rule book

In fact, he is an elected official breaking FIFA and SAFA rules, but that's not new in this country. Like everybody else, I was sad to see Swallows, an historic Soweto club, slip in to the NFD and then the ABC Motsepe League in successive seasons. Quite where Mr Lesufi was when debt-ridden owner Leon Prins was looking for help over the last two seasons, nobody knows.

At one point, during their NFD relegation battle last season, he said: "Perhaps Swallows need to be relegated again."

On Metro on Tuesday night, we heard Lesufi admitting: “We cannot be called Moroka Swallows in the PSL, but we want to keep the team colours, the bird on the badge and we’ll play at Dobsonville” while neglecting to mention their average crowd over the past five seasons in under 400 (I’d give an exact figure but the PSL keeps these things in the file labelled TOP SECRET).

When Comitis was allowed to buy Aces, the PSL told us he wasn’t really buying promotion, he was stepping in to save a failing business. It’s a very delicate argument, easily knocked down.

But what Lesufi has done, spending an estimated R55m to buy Free State Stars’s place in the PSL, breaks every rule in the book.

As I write, Orlando Pirates - whose elderly chairman Irvin Khoza has run the PSL with an iron hand for 20 years - have already snapped up three Ea Lla Koto players for free with the official announcement of the deal still pending.

Just as with the Ertugral/Tinkler swap, Pirates appear to be the major footballing benefactors with Ayanda Nkosi, Justice Chabalala and Sello Japhta all headed for Parktown with unseemly haste. The little stars of Bethlehem are falling fast.

Free State Stars meanwhile, having announced the arrival of new French coach Denis Lavagne barely a fortnight ago, are believed to be plotting the purchase of NFD club Mthatha Bush Bucks and hope to win the NFD before anybody really notices they’re gone.

I’ve got this picture of Lavagne calling his assistant Bradley Carnell in the morning screaming: “Bradley?! I am at ze training? Where is ze club? Iz gone! Sacre bleu!”

And Moroka Swallows or whatever they’ll be called? No players, no coach, no kit… just a month before the new season. With Gordon Igesund likely to return the Dube Birds, his agent Mike Makaab will no doubt sort out a squad of talented veterans and tough journeymen to do a job.

But for Free State Strars, whose website still talks about the arrival of Lavagne and the player for pre-season not to mention the local Mayoral Cup, there is nothing.

The side finishing 12th in the PSL is GONE. Aces, who finished a record fourth last season? Gone. And Cape Town City will apparently take their place in the lucrative MTN8 pre-season tournament, which must be galling for those who finished below them.

With Highlands Park and Baroka FC promoted, the PSL fixture list will take on a bizarre new look. There will be a Cape Town derby, Roger de Sa against Eric Tinkler, Comitis v Efstathiou, but that’s all Greek to me. Will the “Oldest Soweto Derby” see Moroka Vultures against Orlando Pirates? What happens if Comitis and Lesufi get relegated? Can they just pay to stay up?

The questions are endless. The PSL are talking about kicking-off the new season after the Olympics with midweek games in August. The transfer window is devoid of any real spending. Chippa United, though pleading poverty, have signed 17 new players, including three international selected Orlando Pirates youngers. Dr Khoza has allegedly handed out millions to club chairman to keep the wheels turning.

The NFD remains sponsorless, with a R400,000 prize, while the third division Motsepe League offers a million to their champions. We start the season without a SINGLE South African in the English Premier League, a first in my memory, and even China aren’t buying our locals.

But we soldier on. Lesufi’s Vultures under Igesund may surprise us, Tinkler’s City may overwhelm the odds, Baroka FC might finish above Kaizer Chiefs, who threw out 20 players and signed eight journeymen. Highlands Park v Orlando Pirates sounds like something out of the 80s.

But I've said this all before. There's just one question which needs answering: Why was Lesufi allowed to buy Free State Stars’ place in the PSL when Patrick Sokhela’s AmaZulu were denied the same right a year before? I think we should be told.

The South African transfer window: is it open or is it broken?

Forgotten man: Tenda Ndoro at Orlando Pirates

THE official PSL account on twitter announced it proudly at exactly 8am this morning: “The domestic transfer window is officially open.”

After that, just the creak of that opening window and tumbleweed blowing through the league’s offices in Parktown until the closing of a slightly cracked window at 5pm on Friday, January 29.

Sadly, the South African transfer system appears to be broken. Or at the very least, in need of a thorough clean. Every six months we talk about big moves that SHOULD happen, how our R9m record fee SHOULD be broken, how Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates SHOULD have enough money for a match-winner.

But it simply doesn’t happen. In fact, since Mamelodi Sundowns stopped spending Patrice Motsepe’s billions two seasons ago, our transfer market has become something of a joke.

While the rest of the football-speaking world lashes out record-breaking millions, the best a PSL club has ever managed was the reputed R9m Sundowns played Ajax Cape Town for Khama Billiat in August 2013.

In current terms, R9m amounts to about 400,000 British pounds. Even third tier clubs pay more than that in Europe. Remember, when they were still a Championship club, Bournemouth paid 2.5m (R70m) for Bafana Bafana striker Tokelo Rantie in August 2013, around the same time Billiat was leaving Cape Town for Tshwane. And he’s played 10mins in the Premier League this season.

The enormous fees paid in Europe cannot be matched in Africa... but the collapse of South Africa's fee-system remains a staggering but unwritten sensation.

There are obvious players who SHOULD demand more than R9m in the PSL today. Siphelele Ntshangase languishes with NFD club Black Leopards, teenager Phakamani Mahlambi and his Bidvest Wits team-mate Sibusiso Vilakasi should be tempting the Soweto giants.

And for lesser fees, Tendai Ndoro, Thabo Qalinge, David Zulu and Lehlohonolo Majoro are among the obvious targets as they warm benches at Pirates and Chiefs. And then you have the current PSL top scorers, Daine Klate and Collins Mbesuma, two men let go by the big clubs, plying their trade with significant success for Wits and Mpumalanga Black Aces.

So will we see a big transfer swoop this window? Probably not. In South Africa, coaches are rarely allowed to splash out money like they are in Europe. Here, technical directors and general managers do the deals directly with agents.

As I have documented here many times, Stuart Baxter left Chiefs because Bobby Motaung would not allow him a say on recruitment after last season's record breaking PSL title triumph. James Keene, the English journeyman who trialled brightly at Naturena, has just been snapped up by Gavin Hunt and Jose Ferreira at big-spending minnows Wits a year after Chiefs refused to make a move.

The problem is the agent/club link. Transfer fees are seen as money "wasted" when it can be split between the officials involved in the deal. The days of small clubs part-funding themselves with transfer fees from the giants appear to be over.

That’s why Tim Sukazi, currently the most successful agent in South Africa thanks to his strong links to national coach Shakes Mashaba, shifted his players around a year ago. Tshepo Gumede and Siyabonga Mpontshane went to Orlando Pirates while Tlou Segolela went the other way to Platinum Stars. All three were presented as BIG SIGNINGS but in truth, it was a swap deal which has resulted in very little for either club but a nice slice of the pie for everyone involved except the clubs.

When Kaizer Chiefs top scorer Mandla Masango and PSL player of the season Tefu Mashamaite were not given new contracts after winning the championship last year, neither of them could find a local club willing to step in. Incredibly, they both had to decamp to Scandinavia to get a game.

Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs announced the "big transfers" of Siyanda Xulu, Keegan Ritchie, Daniel Cardoso, Camaldine Abraw (amid some controversy), Bongani Ndulula, Edward Manqele and, later, an unknown Ugandan called Sula Matovu.

Oh, and they also tried to present Sibongiseni Ngcobo and Andisiwe Mtsila, two “academy” lads, as new signings, along with Lucky Baloyi, because he hadn’t gone out on loan. And, finally, they did a new deal with goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune, clearly on Bobby's terms.

Go through those names. Look for the transfer fees. Try to guess the salaries. These weren’t transfers, these were deals struck between Bobby Motaung and various agents. Neither the out-going Stuart Baxter nor new coach Steve Komphela had any say.

In truth, the European-style transfer swoop is dead in South Africa. That magical, morale-boosting grab, like Petr Cech going to Arsenal for £10million or Anthony Martial to Manchester United for £36million just won’t happen.

There is no transparency in our transfer market. Just as the PSL refuses to give us crowd figures, so we are denied ANY INSIGHT in to fees or salaries. Fans and journalists alike work in the dark. We know the big clubs have plenty of money - Vodacom, Carling and Absa offer millions - but we have no idea where it goes.

While the fans rush around talking in excited tones about Vilakazi going to Kaizer Chiefs after Bobby Motaung (illegally) said he wants to go, the agents are shifting around New Zealanders (five at the last count) and age-cheating journeymen in deeply dodgy dealings with the likes of Motaung and Screamer Tshabalala while their chairmen are given sketchy details.

SuperSport United led the way in the last window. Dean Furman, Bongani Khumalo and Michael Boxall all arrived from foreign fields (along with a couple of others from Down Under) and we all knew money was being spent but HOW MUCH? And WHY? Mike Makaab, fashionable when Gordon Igesund was Bafana coach, is now Stanley Matthews' best pal, along with a chap called Glyn Binkin, architect of such memorable deals as Katlego Mphela and Morgan Gould to Chiefs.

Just as South African football craves disappearing spray, goal-line technology, disciplinary reviews and referee assessments (and less mid-season breaks), so we need a transfer market that we can all see and appreciate.

Watch closely as this January transfer window saga unfolds. Look for real, serious signings designed to lift a club out of the doldrums. Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates get R50m a year from Vodacom. They should both be spending, given their current positions. Both coaches Steve Komphela and Eric Tinkler are under huge pressure... yet they have no say in who comes and goes.

R10m for Vilakazi, Ntshangase, Abbubaka Mobara or Mahlambi should be possible. Ndoro, Majoro, David Zulu and Ndulula should find new homes. But if certain people don’t get their cut, it won’t happen. If the right agent isn’t wandering around outside the gate with his cell phone, players will remain unhappy and unfulfilled. And so will the fans.

And we’ll end up with more mysterious moves of no-name foreigners and has-beens. 

Record-breaking transfers? Exciting last-minute deals? We can only hope. You have been warned.

So why were South Africa so keen to give Jack Warner $10m... and where did the "Africa Diaspora" cash REALLY go?

Nobel peace prize winners Desmond Tusu, FW de
Klerk and Nelson Mandela with FIFA president
Sepptic Blatter and then-president Thabo Mbeki

It is no longer a question of DID Jack Warner receive $10m before the 2010 World Cup, it is now a question of WHY.

The simple answer is: Because all four Confederation of African Football "pals" voted for South Africa's rivals Morocco in 2004. Which came as a bit of a surprise to our organising committee, who immediately felt the need to persuade the North Americans of CONCACAF to change their mind about voting for Africa's Arabic far northerners.

When Issa Hayatou, chairman of CAF, led his fellow African FIFA executives to the Morocco camp, panic spread through South Africans who expected a romp to victory after the Charles Dempsey disaster of 2000, which took the 2006 World Cup to Germany by the narrowest of margins.

Sepptic Blatter decreed that Africa would host the 2010 World Cup and South Africa - so successful at hosting the 1995 Rugby World Cup and 2003 Cricket World Cup - looked nailed on to win it. Libya's bid crumbled and they were denied a co-hosting deal with Tunisia. Egypt had no support but dark horses Morocco were being pushed by UEFA's Michel Platini and the USA, as a thank you for their anti-terrorism stance.

Jordaan, accused of "not understanding how FIFA works" when he lost the 2006 bid, immediately wheeled out the big guns - Nobel peace prize winners Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He flew them off to Granada to meet with Jack Warner, then chairman of CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union. An agreement was forged. A deal was done. Smiles all round. And then the R120m question is: Was it a bribe or not a bribe?

As I first revealed on eTV Sunrise on Friday morning last week, the FIFA indictment explains exactly how and why the now-resigned CONCACAF president winkled 410m out of FIFA for backing South Africa as hosts, despite taking R1m from Morocco to do exactly the same.

Here’s the direct quote from the 160-page indictment – of which just SIX detail the South African problem. There are further details in the document showing a clear paper-trail and the involvement of TWO South Africans, co-conspirators 15 and 16.

“Co-conspirator 1 (believed to be former US FIFA official Chuck Blazer) learned from the defendant Jack Warner that high-ranking officials of FIFA, the South African government and the South African bid committee, including co-conspirator 16, were prepared to arrange for the government of South Africa to pay $10m to CFU (the Caribbean Football Union) to “support the African diaspora.”

Yes, that’s right. The "African diaspora" was used as the cloak to protect what amounted to a blatant bribe. When the money was paid – through FIFA rather than South Africa – Warner used it to pay back his Moroccan contact. Of that there is no doubt. In 2009, when Warner came to South Africa for the Confederations Cup warm-up, President Jacob Zuma told him he was a hero and beamed: "Our nation owes you an eternal debt of gratitude." My how those words must be regretted now.

But Warner got his money. South Africa had their World Cup. Eventually the cash was taken from the much-talked about FIFA World Cup Legacy Fund. Originally intended to amount to $100m, it ended up as $80m, with $10m going towards the building of SAFA house (plus a couple of now-missing buses and Mercedez) next to Soccer City, the other $10m going to pay Warner.

Last time SAFA president Danny Jordaan gave me a copy of that account, it amounted to just over R350m (about $38m these days) with no visible signs of grass roots development that I can find. He claims now that R65m of it will be used to fund a "SAFA Technical Centre" South of Johannesburg, but admits "there are paperwork problems".

That Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula initially laughed off the Warner payment as “a Hollywood movie” is remarkable. All he had to do was read the indictment. Or even ask Danny Jordaan and Irvin Khoza about the “African diaspora” scenario. By Monday, when I appeared on television again, Mbalula had changed his story. He admitted the payment had been made but insisted it was "a procedural matter.' The television company was warned to stop me talking about the FIFA story.

Mbalula – and several top South African football journalists – got stuck in to the US investigation for “disrespecting” South Africa, for demeaning our brilliant World Cup in 2010.

I understand that attitude. But they are missing the point. If Warner and Blazer had taken their three CONCACAF votes to Morroco, the Nelson Mandela dream of a World Cup in Africa may have been derailed. Unlikely, but in those jumpy days of 2004, after the “Dempsey abstention” had robbed us of the 2006 edition, we had to be sure. People were saying the Rainbow Nation had become a criminal nightmare, that violence would erupt. We had to bend the argument back to Madiba's dream. In the end, the vote went to South Africa, 14-10 over Morocco, with Egypt polling no votes.

So, brilliantly, we paid the money to help the “African diaspora” in  the Caribbean, apparently to help young people of African descent to play football in the West Indies. Bizarrely, no money from Africa’s first World Cup ever went to the Confederation of African football to help anybody.

But then, they didn't vote for us, not even our "mate" Ishmael Bhamjee from Botswana, who was wined and dined extensively by SAFA in the build-up to the vote. The brother of disgraced former PSL boss Abdul claimed afterwards he voted for South Africa in the secret ballot, but that was a cop out.

Now the FBI face the tough task of proving the $10m was in fact a bribe rather than a nice chunk of money offering Trinidad and Tobago MP Jack Warner – once the island nation’s Minister of Security – ten million opportunities to help the local footballers who could be traced back to the dark continent.

If that money was NOT used for the right purposes, surely SAFA have the right to demand it back?  $10m would pay neatly for that new Technical Centre  - not to mention the salary of our long-awaited Technical Director with Bafana Bafana suffering the Shakes right now.

As with the pre-World Cup match-fixing allegations, which led to the brief suspension of five SAFA officials two years ago, SAFA are closing ranks and denying alongside Mbalula, with Tokyo Sexwale, Molefi Olifant, Danny Jordaan and Dr Irvin Khoza all singing from the same song sheet. Among their number: the two "co-conspirators" named in the detailed US indictment. And, without question, the mystery men who dealt with master fixer Wilson Raj Perumal in the four friendlies so clearly "bent" before the 2010 World Cup.

But in effect the denials changed to excuses on Sunday, with Jordaan admitting to paying the Caribbean Football Union, through a CONCACAF account run by Warner, $10m, while the new Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay insisted: “I haven’t paid a bribe or taken a bribe from anybody in my life.”

Jordaan is now so firmly embroiled in solving political corruption problems in Port Elizabeth, he didn't make the vote which reinstalled Blatter for a fifth term on Friday, a less than expected 133-73 victory over Jordan's Prince Ali.

Jordaan claimed he didn't travel to Switzerland to "cut costs" after warning his ANC councillors in NMB to make less overseas flights. In fact the ANC told him not to go. His Mayoral job is just too important to them. Clearly Jordaan cannot carry on his double life. What if he'd gone to Zurich and been questioned - not by the FBI but by local police - about how he cast his vote for Qatar 2022? Or if they'd asked him how much he got paid for his part in the 2010 World Cup? Enough to pay off the five houses he told me about a week ago?

I believe Jordaan did what he had to to bring the World Cup home for Madiba. He did what FIFA officials have done since Argentina 1978, when a disgusting military junta persuaded the world they were a suitable venue to fix 6-0 victories over Peru.

And I think the FBI will find it hard to prove the $10m was, indeed, a bribe. Mbalula, whose bizarre claims are actually hampering South Africa's defence, would be best served asking what happened to the money rather than denying it was paid.

The only question is: Did we pay Jack Warner to help Caribbean victims of the “African disapora” or not? Can anybody prove otherwise? Is it South Africa's fault he used $1m of it to pay back his Moroccan bribe? Of course not. The bloke has made a fortune from football before his resignation in 2011. So much so that he can now afford to tell Blatter he "shamed the game of football" (he also used the word "disgrace" when interviewed by the German magazine Stern yesterday).

What South Africa cannot afford is THIS: a series of silly denials and accusations from the Sports Minister Mbalula saying "America are trying to make us look corrupt". They aren't. Honestly. Nkandla, Marikana, the arms deal and so many other stories are doing that very effectively in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The Americans just want an explanation for Warner's payment. If they don' get it, we could find the investigation broadening in to a check on the match-fixing allegations - still not dealt with - the tenders for our World Cup stadia - don't ask Bobby Motaung - and post-World Cup bonuses.

And that could be a REAL problem. Best we just don't go there.

Roger that: Orlando Pirates coach De Sa reveals TP Mazembe experience makes him want to walk away from football

I feel like Rambo: Roger de Sa after the trip to TP Mazembe

Orlando Pirates coach Roger De Sa admitted yesterday he felt like “walking away from football” after the extraordinary scenes at TP Mazembe on Sunday.

The gritty 48-year-old saw his side escape from the Democratic Republic of Congo with a 1-0 defeat which sees the Buccaneers go through to the group stages of the African Champions League 3-2 on aggregate.

The game in Lubumbashi saw three SABC operatives detained as Mazembe blanked out coverage of a game which saw Pirates captain Lucky Lekgwathi sent off and TWO penalties awarded to the home team.

De Sa said: “I feel a bit like Rambo this morning. We expected trouble but nothing like that. I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it. All the things that happened. What they tried to do to us.

“In the end it’s not about football when you see the way TP Mazembe handled themselves. To be honest, I feel like walking away from the game. If somebody called me and offered me a job outside football I’d take it.

In the Lions den: The Pirates bench on Sunday

“But then you calm down, and you realise the national pride in our result. Look, what these people did is bad for the game, it’s bad for Africa."

Pirates made the trip north knowing TP Mazembe president Moise Katumbe Katwe runs the football team and governs the DRC province of Katanga. Buccaneers chairman Irvin Khoza, who also runs the PSL and is a vice-president of SAFA, had assured his side there would be no trouble having had Moise as a house guest just two weeks ago.

But De Sa said: “The intimidation, the officials, the way we were treated. It’s disgusting. Still, we’re through. There must have been a stronger force at work for that to happen.

“I warned the players what would happen. When we got to the ground, it was filled to capacity. They’ve build a great stadium, a huge fan base – so we walked on the pitch in our suits and we absorbed the crowd. They walked around, they sang. We felt no fear.

"I showed the lads videos of what has gone on in games like this before. We were prepared for it.

“But then, when you have referees and officials like that, I mean what can you do? Their first plan was to send off our captain. Then the penalties. Senzo Meyiwa was heroic. We were one goal away from going out.

“What do you do about it? They stopped all coverage of the game on television and radio. They took away the mobile phones so nobody could say anything. In the end the referee’s decision is final and we have nothing to show CAF or FIFA.”

Amid reports that the officials from the Seychelles refused to speak English and TP Mazembe failed to submit a formal team sheet, it appears further action should be taken but De Sa sighed: “We’ve known about this kind of thing for years.

“I just find it unbelievable things like this can happen. Some people there actually think it’s right to do these things, to win at all costs.

“It can’t be right. But we gradually built up to this. To be honest when we went to Zambia in the last round there were signs of it. Now we go to the group stages, and we’ll soldier on.

“I have to say all the lads were heroes. They played so well. At one point we even considered walking off when the penalties were awarded.

“But we stuck it out. And we’re through. I hope I can sleep tonight.”

The shocking truth about CAF: Danny Jordaan on how the French-speaking nations have left South Africa powerless

The man who SHOULD run CAF: Danny Jordaan and Nelson Mandela

DANNY JORDAAN returned home from his abject electoral defeat in Morocco last month deeply disturbed by what he saw at the Confederation of African Football elections in Marrakesh – and bitterly regretting he represents a nation labelled “English-speaking”.

Jordaan, shockingly beaten to a four-year term on the CAF executive by the mysterious Madagascar FA President known only as Ahmad, has every reason to feel aggrieved.

Jordaan is a former SAFA CEO who successfully organised Africa’s first World Cup in South Africa in 2010. He is close to FIFA president Sepp Blatter and has a “great working relationship” with spokesman Jerome Valcke.

Born in Port Elizabeth, he has a strong record as an anti-apartheid activist who was banned and harried by the Apartheid regime. He also played provincial cricket and football before moving in to administration where he led the Cape Town Olympic bid before moving in to SAFA’s highest ranks.

And this bloke Ahmad? FIFA admit they have “no further information” about the man. Not even his full name. There is simply nothing about the Madagascar FA he runs ANYWHERE. But I can tell you that, under his guidance, Madgascar are currently 188^th in the FIFA world rankings, their lowest ever, after losing to Equatorial Guinea in the 2014 World Cup preliminary qualifiers. They are also 47^th out of the 54 African nations, just behind Swaziland. Hardly a powerhouse, hardly a great recommendation for Ahmad.

Danny and I go back quite a way. He’s told me some of his apartheid stories and any suggestion he is not the perfect man to run CAF is laughable. I launched in with: Defeat against Madagascar?! He shrugged: “We had an agreement the position on the CAF executive wouldn’t go to one of the islands, but it did. COSAFA is mostly English and Portuguese speaking but now we have two French speaking representatives.

"When I got to Marrakesh, Michael Platini (the famous Frenchman who covets Blatter’s hot seat as head of FIFA) had been there two days. He was there for another day after I left.

“I don’t think you must personalise it. Any South African would be seen as a threat to the President. People know when they come to South Africa they will have the environment and infrastructure to play under the best conditions.

“They appreciate that. But it is the other interests, the ones which cannot be balanced with the real interests of football.

“In the north, it’s worse. The French dominate. It sets a precedent. It’s not fair representation. It’s a question of leadership. It doesn’t make sense. These are issues we have to discuss.

The Francophone nations: from Wikimedia.org

“When you look at Southern Africa, the election outcome goes against the agreement we had. It is only in the interests of those who want to pursue a particular path for football in Africa and at FIFA. Those are things I don’t want to talk about.

“South Africa’s role is appreciated, we mustn’t think we’re not wanted on the continent. We must simply understand it’s all about the next CAF president, the next FIFA president.“

“Platini had it all wrapped up. He stands for the French-speaking nations, that is his powerbase. Now 83 percent of the CAF executive is Francophone.

“Just ask Nigeria. Their guy lost to Moucharafou Anjorin from Benin who had just come out of jail after six months. But he’s loyal to Issa Hayatou and the “big five” French speaking nations in CAF.”

It was Anjorin who lashed out at English FA Chairman David Bernstein at the 2011 FIFA elective congress in Zurich when the English asked for a postponement before Blatter’s re-election.

Anjorin was jailed for several months last year amid allegations of “financial impropriety over missing sponsorship funds” but had no problem getting onto the CAF executive ahead of Nigeria, crowned the 

African Cup of Nations champions in South Africa a month before.

Then there’s war-torn Mali's Amadou Diakite, whose ban from "all football activities" ended on October 20th 2012. He bounced back with an incredible 35 out of a possible 54 votes to take his four-year term on the executive.

Jordaan admits: “All English-speaking candidates lost, Platini and Hayatou saw to that. I have to look beyond Hayatou – I think some were worried if I got on the excutive, I might be the next president, and I’m not French!

“I spoke to David Dein from England. The truth is the English, who invented the game and run the best-watched league in the world, now have NO SAY AT ALL over what happens in football.

“Platini is ensuring the influence of the English-speaking nations is non-existent. And South Africa is paying the price for that.

“The only way out of it I can see is for the Commonwealth to become a footballing body. To act as a voting bloc at FIFA. Perhaps then our voice will be heard. That would united the English-speaking nations. But right now the Commonwealth countries do not deal with football and the sport doesn’t feature in the Commonwealth Games.

“CAF elections, sadly, have nothing to do with the good of football. They are for power and money. That is the truth.

"Morocco is history now. But change is coming in FIFA and CAF, I'm confident that we will have a excuitive member in CAF by 2015."

South Africa’s only representative at CAF executive level is former school teacher and SAFA official Molefi Oliphant, a co-opted member who rarely raises his head above the parapet.

Jordaan is not alone in his discontent, Safa executive member Buti Lerefolo, in Marrakesh as an observer, said: “It was not only South Africa, but Nigeria was also marginalised. We were sabotaged. Africa did not vote for us and all we could hear were whispers that South Africa has a lot of money.”

A dossier suggesting South Africa post-World Cup corruption re-emerged in Morocco and after initially coming out in support of their man, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani issued a brown-nosed statement saying: “We have no doubt they will take our confederation to new heights and we look forward to working with the Caf executive committee to improve the sport on the continent.

"We are grateful for the support shown by our sister federations for SA's candidate."

Confused? So am I. Jordaan says: “The Arabic countries have too much power, the Francophile nations hold sway. Something has to be done.

“Our job is to help develop the game, the under 15, the referees, the facilities. That’s where my heart lies. We have to get away from these political discussions.

“The challenges are backing Bafana, backing the game in Africa. We must distinguish between what is real and what is done for political purposes.

“To have documents that are faceless and nameless, designed to smear people? That must stop. Let’s go face-to-face. Give reasons, this dossier – it’s an insult to call it that – is not right. For the good of this country, we don’t want the world to sit back and shake their heads.

“We must retain our integrity. We have global support.”

A shorter version of this story will appear as my Neal and Pray story in www.thenewage.co.za on Tuesday.

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