/ 8 January 2010

Change of leadership signals loosening of Iron Duke’s grip

The swift replacement of Raymond Hack with fellow lawyer Leslie Sedibe as the Safa CEO could have two different implications.

The swift replacement of Raymond Hack with fellow lawyer Leslie Sedibe as the South African Football Association’s (Safa) chief executive on Wednesday could have two different implications.

On the one hand, it could set the tone for a bruising battle for the control of South Africa’s number one sport once the World Cup is over. It should be remembered that Fifa has asked local football’s warring factions to keep a truce until July 11.

But it is far more likely that Hack’s premature departure signals a loosening of Irvin Khoza’s iron grip on the game. Hack was a close ally of local organising committee chairperson Khoza in the Safa presidential elections in September last year, in which the relatively unknown Kirsten Nematandani was ushered in as president of the organisation. Since then Hack’s days have been numbered.

Surviving the past three months under a leadership that clearly wanted him out must have been a difficult experience. But LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan and the Football Transformation Forum that backed Nematandani will no doubt celebrate the exit of the Iron Duke’s last pointman in Safa House.

A senior Safa national executive committee member told The Star this week: “We knew he should have been the first one to go because of his close relations with the other camp [Khoza].”

Hack cited personal reasons for his departure, but the fact that he admitted to being “saddened” at leaving so close to the biggest football event ever hosted in Africa suggests his exit was not so amicable.

For Khoza, this is a major blow to any fight-back plans he might have been entertaining.

The Jordaan camp, by contrast, is taking full advantage of the Fifa-induced truce to assert its power before the time the World Cup ends. Its members will hold a Fifa-financed workshop on Robben Island this weekend, where, according to Safa deputy president Mandla Mazibuko, Fifa will officially induct the new executive.

Further plans are already in place to press Jordaan’s advantage. Sedibe is expected to make way for him before December 31 when he [Jordaan] will have wrapped up his duties as the LOC’s administrative head. Jordaan, who dropped out of the presidential race at the 11th hour to back Nematandani, is expected by many in local football to return to the position — of chief executive — that he left after South Africa’s 2010 World Cup bid in 2004.

For the Khoza camp the abrupt end to Hack’s controversial six-year term — which included the disastrous appointment of Joel Santana, the former national coach, without an interview– is a heavy blow.

If the Jordaan camp cements its position before the tournament ends, the next four years could see the Iron Duke confined to a humiliating seat on the terraces.