Recent elections for the top sports administration posts in South Africa have been disappointing affairs. The athletics, cricket and even rugby elections failed to deliver the bitter spice that traditionally clouds, but also energises, these contests.
Finally, now, we have a race with a sense of intrigue, malice and vicious rivalry, but even that has been tempered by the looming World Cup.
The campaign to become the president of the South African Football Association (Safa) is, by all accounts, being furiously waged in the corridors of power, but an air of civility has stifled any public controversy, with only a few morsels of intrigue being leaked to the press.
The successor to Molefi Oliphant will be decided in Johannesburg on September 26, the same day that the Premier Soccer League (PSL) hosts its first cup final of the season — the MTN8 Cup.
Irvin Khoza is heavily fancied to add yet another title to his curriculum vitae.
For years he has been happy to play a role behind the scenes while concentrating on the professional game and on his club, Orlando Pirates.
The PSL is now a well-oiled machine, with lucrative television rights and a growing influx of quality foreign coaches and players.
It is a credit to Khoza’s canny manoeuvring. But its credibility remains clouded while the issue of poor refereeing remains unresolved, mainly because Khoza seems unwilling to tackle the problem head-on.
Now Khoza wants to be seated upon, rather than to manipulate, the throne at Safa. The PSL does not confer the prestige that comes with being the chairman of the association hosting the World Cup finals. And that is where Khoza’s career is headed — a long way from its lowly origins working on the gate at Orlando Stadium.
Oliphant has kept the seat warm for long enough and, despite pleas from Fifa and, allegedly, the government, the elections will go ahead as planned, about 250 days ahead of the World Cup kick-off.
Danny Jordaan is positioned as the anti-Khoza antidote. He is a surprise candidate, because as chief executive officer of the 2010 World Cup Organising Committee, he should have time for nothing other than ensuring the best World Cup yet takes place next year.
But once Khoza went for the top post, Jordaan had little option but to oppose him — victory in the Safa elections is Jordaan’s only chance of staying at the centre of the football industry beyond the World Cup.
Such is the chill in the relationship between the two men that Jordaan would face swift exile by a Khoza regime — a situation he has already only narrowly avoided.
Jordaan is in his present job only because of the intervention of Fifa president Sepp Blatter. Khoza sought to get rid of Jordaan as far back as 2004, after the country won the right to host the World Cup.
As CEO of the successful bid company, Jordaan expected to move over to the same role in the organising committee, but Khoza, who made a similar switch as chairperson, wanted the job advertised instead.
After six months of intrigue, Blatter flew to Johannesburg and installed Jordaan in the job, a humiliation Khoza has not forgotten.
Blatter’s entreaties to postpone the election until after the World Cup have cut no ice with Khoza this time. South Africa’s position as 2010 host is locked down and adequate funds from Fifa have already been banked. Zurich’s bite has become a bark.
Depending on who you speak to, it will either be a straight win for Khoza or it will be poised on a knife’s edge. Some claim football is split down the middle and that within Safa and the 2010 Organising Committee there are clearly defined camps.
”Some people don’t even stop to greet each other in case it is misconstrued that they are in one camp or the other,” an employee said.
But the spectre of a football Polokwane seems far-fetched. Indeed, theoretically, neither man is yet a candidate because, although nominations have closed, the audited list has yet to be released by Safa. It is expected next week.
That is perhaps why neither has offered up a manifesto or vision yet.
It will be a surprise if they do produce anything visionary, because this is yet another sporting election about ego, status and the lucrative windfalls that go with power.
The future of South Africa’s favourite game is, sadly, secondary.