Jordaan seeks spot on FIFA committee
Reuters - Thursday 04 November 2010, 17:44
JOHANNESBURG - Danny Jordaan, the man
responsible for organising the last World Cup, is now seeking to
sit on the all-powerful FIFA committee that decides, among other
things, where future World Cups will be played.
The 59-year-old South African administrator, whose term as
chief executive officer of the 2010 World Cup Organising
Committee ends next month, has been nominated by his country for
a post on the FIFA executive committee, the 24-man inner cabinet
that runs the game and takes all its major decisions.
"The World Cup profile is a big help," said Jordaan, who
intends lobbying across the continent in the next months.
"It is important for me that Africa feels I can make a
contribution," he told Reuters.
Two of Africa's four positions on the FIFA executive
committee come up for re-election in February, one of them held
by Nigerian Amos Adamu, who world football's governing body
provisionally suspended last month.
Adamu was caught in a newspaper sting seeking money for his
vote in next month's upcoming on where the 2018 and 2022 World
Cups will be held.
The other African berth up for re-election is held by
Jacques Anouma, president of the Ivorian Football Federation,
who has not yet made public whether he will seek another
four-year term.
Adamu is expected to try to hold on to his post if he is not
expelled by FIFA, whose ethics committee will decide on his
future this month.
Nominations for the posts close on November 23, three months
before the election at the Confederation of African Football
congress in Khartoum, Sudan. Jordaan is the first to make his
candidacy public.
His experience in football administration, dating back more
than two decades, and the successful organising of the World Cup
will be key parts of his election campaign.
Jordaan said he had had a surge of support from African
football associations and says he is confident of winning a
place on the FIFA executive as well as the CAF executive.
Traditionally, administrators seeking to work their way up
to the FIFA committee serve time first as members of the CAF
executive, but Jordaan is attempting both at the same time.
A former history teacher and Parliamentarian, Jordaan almost
single-handedly ran South Africa's two World Cup bid campaigns
before taking over the organisation of the 2010 finals.