Danny Jordaan to put his hand up for re-election as SAFA president

South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan will stand for re-election when his term of office comes to an end in March next year if the regions ask him to continue.

The Safa regions will appoint new leadership on March 24 and Jordaan revealed on Tuesday that he would throw his name in the hat if he is asked to return for a second term.

‘‘If they (the Safa regions) decide that I should continue‚ I will probably agree‚” he said.

‘‘But let me not answer a question that was not asked because no one asked me to stand.”

The elections were originally scheduled to be held in September next year but more than 90 percent of the Safa regions recently voted in favour of hosting the elective congress earlier than usual in March.

Bafana Bafana’s failure to qualify for next year’s Soccer World Cup largely contributed to the decision to hold an early election and the regions felt that there was no need to retain the original date if the national team was no longer going to Russia.

Former Bafana and Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe recently revealed that he was interested in succeeding Jordaan and is expected to also throw his name in the hat when the nomination process opens next month.

The nominations open in the middle of January next year and close in February‚ 30 days before the elections.

Jordaan‚ who remained Safa president after he became Nelson Mandela Bay mayor in May 2015‚ said the current leadership should be evaluated on the work they have done since coming into office and the regions should then decide if they deserved to be allowed to complete the many projects that are currently underway at Fun Valley in the south of Johannesburg.

‘‘They (the regions) understand that there must be an evaluation and at the end of the evaluation there must be reward and punishment‚” Jordaan said.

‘‘That’s how life works and they will come with their crosses and those who must be rewarded will rewarded and those who must be punished will be punished.

‘‘I don’t know who are they going to reward and who are they going to punish.”

Jordaan has been at the helm for four years since surviving multiple court challenges and chaotic last-minute disputes to become Safa president in 2013.

He saw off fierce rival‚ Mandla “Shoes” Mazibuko‚ by an overwhelming majority at Helderfontein Estate‚ Fourways‚ getting 162 votes to Mazibuko’s 88.

‘‘When we got elected in 2013‚ we sat down and crafted what is called Vision 2022‚

‘‘Vision 2022 is supposed to run over two World Cups — it’s an eight-year programme and it runs from 2014 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2022.

‘‘We are halfway through now and that is why today we said we must make an assessment — what are our successes and what are our failures halfway through‚ and what are the prospects of achieving it over the next four years.”