Khoza for Safa president?

A SUBSTANTIAL number of Safa regions have thrown the cat among the pigeons by convincing influential soccer boss Irvin Khoza to be their preferred candidate to lead the cash-strapped federation as its next president.

Khoza has been approached by more than 29 regions and five Safa associate members to be their preferred candidate at the association's elections in Sandton on September 28.

Some Safa regional members met in Johannesburg at the weekend where a decision was formally taken for Khoza to be the face of their campaign.

Some of the top administrators supporting the Khoza election campaign are members of the Football Transformation Forum (FTF) Mandla "Shoes" Mazibuko, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana and Alpha Mchunu.

In terms of the group's plan for the elections, Khoza will be the president with Mazibuko, Nonkonyana and Mchunu serving as his deputies.

The fourth deputy will come from the Premier Soccer League, most likely to be Kaizer Motaung. If elected Safa president, Khoza will resign as PSL boss.

"We had a meeting where we unanimously agreed to support the candidature of the chairman [Khoza] to be the next president of Safa," said Mazibuko. "The meeting was attended by 29 fully fledged regions of Safa and five associate members. We have other regions like Bojanala and Capricorn who are still having problems.

"The chairman is the right person to lead Safa. He has turned the Premier Soccer League into one of the best seven leagues in the world.

"We want Safa to be one of the top 10 federations in the world, Bafana Bafana must be back in the Fifa top 17 rankings and number one in Africa.

"In Dr Khoza, we believe Safa will be in the right hands."

Mazibuko said they had planned to unveil Khoza as the face of their campaign yesterday at a media briefing but it was cancelled because he was not available because of a Caf meeting.

He said this would now be done later in the week.

Mazibuko added that there would be a congress on August 24 to amend the constitution allowing club owners and officials to stand for Safa elections.

Currently, club owners are not allowed to stand.

"That is where the issue of club officials will be discussed.

"South Africa is a democratic country, we can't stop people from contesting elections," said Mazibuko.

"We have been lobbying for support throughout the country, talking to our members. We need to have a financially sound Safa."

Sowetan has learnt that another faction met in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape last weekend, where they asked Danny Jordaan to be their preferred candidate.

At the same meeting, Jordaan offered current Safa president Kirsten Nematandani a position as one of his three deputies.

"Kirsten made it clear he is not interested, he is confident he will get a second term," said a source close to both parties.

Khoza, Jordaan and Nematandani could not be reached for comment.