EDITORIAL | This time, Safa just closing ranks is surely not the right response to Jordaan’s arrest

The South African Football Association (Safa) has been accused of displaying a cult of personality around Danny Jordaan and a tendency to close ranks even when criticism of him or its leadership has been 100% legitimate.

One only has to look at the decline in Bafana Bafana and men’s football in South Africa as a whole in the last two decades and the seemingly endless stream of controversies that have engulfed Safa to know there must have been genuine reasons for criticism.

That is why the deafening silence emanating from Safa House in response to president Jordaan’s arrest on Wednesday on charges of fraud and theft amounting to R1.3m should not be surprising.

It seems predictable, given their past responses — though it would be a welcome surprise if it were not — that if a comment finally does come from Safa on the matter it will come across as sycophantic, myopic, inappropriately defiant and displaced from reality. There is a long way to go — probably a few years — to Jordaan being found guilty or innocent.

He, like anyone else, deserves the fairest trial the South African legal system can offer him. He is innocent until proven otherwise. But Safa’s response at least should include the caveat that the organisation understands that a guilty verdict is possible, even if it stands with its president through these difficult times, rather than the wild finger-pointing and counteraccusations the organisation has produced before.

Many will not be surprised if Safa’s present silence continues, or, if it is broken, it might be the less considered form of response that comes. But if Safa really wants to not feed the narrative of the growing army of high-profile football figures who have come out as stern opponents to Jordaan’s regime, and that the organisation is a body whose internal controls are collapsing, lacks accountability and introspection and is in need of Fifa intervention, then it should say something, and choose those words extremely carefully.

Jordaan is a huge figure in South African football administration. As legendary, if tarnished, former Safa boss Solomon “Stix” Morewa’s right-hand man, he was integral in football’s return from isolation and the formation of South Africa’s governing body.

He was chair of the 2010 World Cup bid committee, travelling the world to bring the competition to South Africa, and of the organising committee that ensured a clockwork-run tournament that defied international Afro-pessimism, pulling government, civil, public and corporate society into a unified force.

Even if Safa does proclaim support for Jordaan, it should be a measured and intelligent response that shows the body takes this matter seriously, or the association’s credibility will only continue to wallow in the depths

He has not reacted well to harsh criticism since his return as Safa president in 2013.

Often Jordaan will rattle off his illustrious CV to journalists who have made cutting assessments.

Their response can be that they know his CV, which is why his underwhelming 11 years at the helm, where little delivery has been made on reforming Safa and development and the body has been plagued by scandal, is so disappointing. Too many promises have not been kept.

Safa regularly has pointed the finger at Premier Soccer League clubs as failing development.

When, in the last two years with a coach in Hugo Broos who has finally earned some results with Bafana, and some young talent finally coming through the pipeline mostly because many clubs have improved their development, Safa’s attempts to take credit have been met with scorn.

Long before his arrest on Wednesday, Jordaan had become a greater source of dark than light in South African football. Jordaan and his leadership structure have been in need of major introspection for years.

Safa has a right to stand behind its president verbally, though surely a body run on good governance would at least consider a suspension or ask Jordaan to step aside pending the outcome of the trial and its inevitable appeals.

And even if Safa does proclaim support for Jordaan, it should be a measured and intelligent response that shows the body takes this matter seriously, or the association’s credibility will only continue to wallow in the depths.