Controversial football strongman Irvin Khoza, sidelined from direct involvement in the 2010 World Cup, is attempting to muscle his way into the action via the commercial company that will look after Bafana Bafana.
And attempts to get businessmen Saki Macozoma and Patrice Motsepe to serve on the newly established commercial wing of the South African Football Association (Safa) could be scuppered by senior officials within the Premier Soccer League (PSL), who want to see the board chaired by Orlando Pirates owner Khoza.
The 2010 local organising committee is headed by Danny Jordaan, at the behest of world football’s governing body, Fifa. Khoza has seen his role in preparations for the World Cup diminish considerably to the largely ceremonial position of chairman since he was joint leader of the successful bid committee with Jordaan.
Khoza, as PSL chairperson, is a non-elected vice-president of Safa. His relationship with Macozoma and Motsepe is described as a ”business friendship”. He is understood to have privately told his inner circle that he will not be part of the board unless he heads it.
Apparently he has the backing of PSL CEO Trevor Phillips, whose organisation has allegedly expressed its displeasure at the final document on the new company, the Joint Liaison Report, which was compiled by Safa vice-president Nomwelo Nonkonyana.
Safa sources, who did not want to be named, said the report strips the PSL of any power and influence, both in the handling of the national team’s affairs and in terms of personnel.
Khoza’s latest power play is said to have driven a wedge between him and his often-obsequious inner circle, particularly Safa president Molefi Oliphant. Oliphant is described as being outraged by Khoza and the group’s ”foolish thinking that the PSL can take away the running of the national teams from Safa”.
Neither Khoza nor Oliphant returned repeated calls from the Mail & Guardian seeking comment.
Nonkonyana confirmed this week that the PSL is pushing for Khoza to chair the new board, but said he did not understand the reasons behind the move. ”They did not mention him [Khoza] by name, but said the chairman of the league should be the chairman of the board of directors. The proposal was neither rejected nor accepted. My private view is that the Safa company should be led by a member of the association who will be able to drive in-house the turnaround strategy for the national team,” Nonkonyana said.
He added that his committee believed the decision on the appointment of a chairperson for the commercial body should be shelved until all board members had been endorsed.
Phillips rejected allegations that the PSL wanted the chairmanship to go to ”their man”, saying the claims were based on the original document the PSL presented to Safa, entitled Professional Game Board.
However, the PSL seems to have backed down on its initial demand for more representation on the body, which would have meant that the professional organisation would virtually have exercised control over the national team.
This is after Safa pointed out to the PSL that the position it wanted to take was constitutionally untenable.
PSL officials are now making conflicting statements. ”I agree in principle with the [Nonkonyana] document. I was part of the team that worked on it. What we don’t agree on is the nomination of the businessmen before they are approached,” Phillips said.
However, senior Safa officials insisted that the PSL wanted more representation on the body and that the league was unhappy with Nono-konyana’s final document. More-over, they accused the PSL of taking advantage of the government and public outcry for change within Safa following Bafana Bafana’s abject failure at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt early this year.
They said the PSL wanted to hijack the restructuring of Safa, which was already in progress.
Safa Western Province president Vernon Seymour said the roots of the current transformation process dated to 2001 and were encompassed by a 14-page document that was Jordaan’s initiative. At that time, Jordaan was Safa CEO and president of the Western Province region.
Jordaan’s initiative was an attempt to remedy Safa’s financial woes and to investigate ways of turning the national association into a profit-making body without relying on sponsorship for survival. ”It was basically to transform the association and make Bafana Bafana a power-ful brand,” Seymour explained.
Kaizer Chiefs owner Kaizer Motaung, one of those who has been pushing for the establishment of such a body, penned a lengthy attack on Safa on his club’s website two months ago, proposing that the PSL take over the running of the national team. ”The PSL must create a division that administers all matters pertaining to the national team,” he argued.
He now says he was not agitating for the takeover. ”There was no way we were going to suggest that the PSL have more people, because that would have meant that the PSL runs it.”
There are concerns that the implementation of various proposals for Safa’s transformation has become bogged down. One reason given is alleged infighting between officials who hold positions in both Safa and the PSL. A second is that Oliphant, tasked with talking to business people and independent individuals, has yet to report back to the national executive committee (NEC) and the joint liaison committee.
It is unclear whether, in view of the current impasse, the NEC will call a special meeting to discuss the new commercial body, as was decided earlier.
Safa may delay calling a meeting now, to avoid having to deal with the chairmanship issue in that way. Instead, insiders said the national association might try and sort out the deadlock amicably ”without drawing the attention of the press to the issue”, and meet again at the original date in June set for the com-pany’s official formation.
Seymour, who is also an NEC member, said: ”It is non-negotiable that a Safa person should be the chairman, preferably one of the vice-presidents. Remember that the board of directors is essentially a sub-committee of Safa. When the process was begu0n, the PSL were nowhere near the debate. I don’t know why they have a problem.”
Pundits complain that the national association is fast losing ground in its preparations for 2010, and the current personal and territorial infighting is hampering the transformation of Bafana Bafana into a competitive force.