Danny Jordaan must leave Safa: Lucas Radebe

The South African Football Association (Safa) will report a R5m deficit when it conducts its long-awaited ordinary congress this weekend, painting a picture of an organisation in dire financial straits.

The constant reports of alleged financial and administrative disarray at Safa prompted legendary Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe to say Danny Jordaan should step down as the association's president.

According to the latest financial report, prepared by Safa financial committee chair Mxolisi Sibam, the main reasons for the challenging financial position are high bonuses paid to national teams and spiralling staff costs due to enormous salaries. As a result, Safa’s “liquidity remains tight” and this could lead to “potential solvency risks”. 

“The largest expenditure item was the R150m (or 40% of revenue) paid in performance bonuses to players and technical staff,” reads Sibam’s report for the financial year ending June 2024.

However, Safa received R160m from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and Fifa as participation fees for Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana in last year's Africa Cup of Nations and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, respectively, taking its turnover to R386m, which was an increase from R239m in 2023.

Sibam’s report further states Safa pays high salaries to its staff but curiously remains silent on the bloated national executive committee, which Fifa recommended more than a decade ago must be trimmed.

“It is also important to note that salaries and remuneration in the association remain high when benchmarked against other comparable national football associations. The finance committee has identified this as an area requiring review to ensure sustainability and efficiency.”

Safa will report a 17% increase in assets to R193m, but Sibam states liabilities remain a problem. “Total liabilities rose to R207m from R172m in 2023, while current liabilities increased to R197m.”

Saturday’s congress comes two weeks after Safa’s leadership was grilled in parliament about allegations of misgovernance.

At the weekend, Radebe said Jordaan, who has been in office since 2013, should not consider serving another term as the association’s president.

“He shouldn’t even be there now, it’s long overdue that he leaves,” the former Leeds United captain told Sowetan.

“He should give others a chance. I followed the conversation [when Safa reported to the sports portfolio committee in parliament this month] and it seems they [Safa] want to reason that they don’t see anyone who can succeed him. It’s all politics.”

Radebe said while South Africa was seeing great performances from national teams, such as the U-20s, who recently lifted the junior African Cup of Nations for the first time, that energy was not matched by delivery in Safa’s administration under Jordaan’s leadership.

“We are performing on the field but are lacking in the office. We know where change is needed,” he said.

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