South African Football Association

So I think you can never look at one thing and completely disregard the other one.

We know that, you know, Safa has really struggled financially.

We know that Mr. Rotani is in court, although, of course, he's sent to proven guilty.

So all these things point to a very, you know, bad situation and suffer but I mean I guess the people that are there and people that are on the ground that's what they say the people that are there the people that know how to run football the regions are the ones that choose him and that he says what can you do if most people say he must continue to be there

Alexander Zverev believes that he's the best player in the world at the moment after his U.S. Open triumph.

Re-elected Sofa president Danny O'Don has put his weight behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

And Kimi Antonelli tightens his grip on the F1 championship after he won in Spain this past weekend.

today we're chatting to brad jakes matalani mamabolo uh south african football journalist He's covered football for 30 years and he really, really loves South African football.

He joins us on the line right now to talk about the SAFA Elective Congress that's being hosted in Midrand this afternoon.

Brad Jakes, thank you so much for joining us.

Talk to us about why is today so important for South African football?

he knows how the system works.

We're currently chatting to Brajegs Matilani Mamabolo, a South African football journalist.

He's covered South African football for the last 30 years and we're talking about the SAFA elective congress that will be hosted in Midrand this afternoon.

The big question is who will be SAFA president at the end of the day? Brajegs, how do we continue this momentum? Because everyone is excited about South African football yet again, given the success of Bafana Bafana at the World Cup.

Well, all the regions and NEC members and others involved in South African football will be gathering on Saturday for SAFA's elective conference.

It's a hugely important election.

I think there's widespread consensus about that.

Will the outcome necessarily fundamentally and quickly change the way South African football is run? Probably not, but all things begin with a small step.

The question is, in what sense? step will that first step, in what direction will that first step go? Let's find out a little bit more though about how the elective process works and how the politics that are clearly very much out there in regard to the build-up to the election might be influenced by the voting structures and systems.

Dennis Mumble is a former CEO of SAFA, but also an author and researcher on sports governance in general, but focusing in particular on those issues as they affect football.

Dennis Mumble, welcome and thanks very much for your time.

I've heard you say on other platforms that you feel the SAFA constitution and the way the organization is set up is not particularly conducive to democratic outcomes and effective ones and accountable ones.

Chairperson of the FTF, Chankiso Modipa, says that there's still a lot to achieve in local football.

All the knowledge that he acquired during his tenure as CEO of SAFA, CEO of the World Cup, Vice President of CAF, and also as the President of SAFA, all the knowledge he transferred to the new generation of leadership, which we couldn't do much in the previous terms due to the fact that there were a lot of infighting, infighting which actually disrupted that process.

Modipa also rubbished claims that some regions of the association have been intimidated into supporting Jordan in Saturday's elections.

There's no need for anyone in our camp, which is the FTF camp, to intimidate anyone.

So those who are saying the regions are being intimidated, they must just produce the proof which regions are intimidated.

By who? So even us, we can get involved to assist them, to deal with those people who are intimidating the regions.

The president of the SA Masters and Legends Football Association and member of the SAFA National Executive Council, Jacob Buda Matate, is an avid supporter of Sandile Zungu as the new president.

He's one of the members who has alleged such intimidation.

That money that belongs to Bafana Bafana players, that belongs to Bafana technical team, must be in the accounts of the deserving people by close of business on Thursday the 10th.

If it is not, those who are complicit in that injustice will account when I move into the office as president of SAFA.

And they will consider themselves fired.

The embattled association was also in the news for the wrong reasons in recent weeks, after the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gaetano McKenzie, criticized them for not implementing the video assistant referee technology.