Jordaan out of African election for FIFA Council after eligibility check
KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS —- Danny Jordaan has withdrawn his candidature to be a FIFA council member in the March 18 election being staged by the African football confederation.
A brief note from CAF has indicated that Jordan – president of the South Africa Football Association – Chabur Goc (South Sudan) and Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia) had all quit the race.
Danny Jordaan . . . no place in the CAF election race
A CAF statement said confirmation of candidates had followed “communications from FIFA . . . in conformity with article 27.5 d) of the governance regulation and following the eligibility checks conducted.”
Jordaan, Goc and Bwalya, who had announced his withdrawal last weekend, were not among those confirmed.
This leaves president Issa Hayatou and Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar approved to contest the CAF leadership.
Approved
The other approved candidates for the elections to the FIFA Council and the CAF exco are Constant Omari (DR Congo), IOC member Lydia Nsekera (Burundi), Kwesi Nyantakyi (Ghana), Leodegar Tenga (Tanzania), Almamy Kabele (Guinea), Hany Abo Rida (Egypt), Tarek Bouchamaoui (Tunisia) and Sidy Diallo (Ivory Coast).
Bwalya had already announced he would not stand, while CAF said that Jordaan and South Sudan’s Chabur Goc Alei also withdrew on not being included among candidates approved by the FIFA governance committee.
As it stands Almamy Kabele Camara of Guinea has been elected unopposed along with Lydia Nsekera as female candidate and a further extraordinary congress will be needed to decide the remaining place. This could be staged on the eve of FIFA Congress in Bahrain in May, following an example already being set by the Asian confederation.
In the autumn of 2015 South Africa’s Democratic Alliance opposition party had pressed for criminal charges to be laid against Jordaan and the then president of SAFA, Molefi Oliphant, over allegations emerging from the FIFAGate corruption investigation in the United States.
The claim by the US Justice Department was that a $10m payment had been organised via FIFA by the South African 2010 World Cup operation to the central and North American confederation CONCACAF in return for votes.
The money was channelled out of funds due to the South Africans but held by FIFA; the payment was entrusted to Jack Warner, then head of both CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union. It was authorised by the late Julio Grondona, then chair of the FIFA finance commitment, and effected by Jerome Valcke, the then secretary-general.
Jordaan, head of the 2006 and 2010 bid committees and then ceo of the organising operation, has always denied wrongdoing.
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