Johannesburg – Getting to Rabat since Morocco closed its borders is giving the Team SA delegation and other envoys a major headache.
Team SA has itchy fingers to get to the North Africa country, where Mamelodi Sundowns boss Patrice Motsepe is expected to be elected unopposed as president of CAF at its congress after the Ivory Coast’s Jacques Anouma pulled out of the race.
Safa president Danny Jordaan, who is extremely elated about Motsepe ascending the CAF throne, said Morocco must allow all delegates into their country or move the venue to another country – but the elections must go on.
On Tuesday, Moroccan authorities closed their borders to Egypt, SA and Cameroon flights. Not only are the CAF elections affected, the 2021 CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament is also under threat as Amajimbos – the SA Under-17s – are still in Johannesburg awaiting their paperwork to travel to Morocco.
The tournament will kick off on Saturday.
The Safa boss said the travel ban will have an impact in the SA Under-17’s preparations because Zambia and other countries are already in Morocco.
“Zambia are already fi ne-tuning their preparations. We had friendly matches lined up but the boys are still here in SA waiting for visas. We will not have enough time because they will arrive there and go straight into their matches and that’s not ideal.”
Morocco are troublesome. In 2015, they decided against hosting the Afcon in the 11th hour due to Ebola disease scare and would not allow other African countries to travel to Morocco for the tournament.
They were banned and did not take part in the 2017 and 2019 Afcon tournaments and slapped with a $1-million (R15.3-million) fine by CAF.
On the election of businessman Motsepe, Jordaan said: “This is a historical and special moment for South Africa. The SA Football Association and the country have been given two big gift s – the 2010 Fifa World Cup and an English-speaking CAF president, both for the first time in the history of football.
“The reason we nominated Motsepe was based on our assessment where African football is at the moment and what needs to be done to get it to the level it deserves.
“CAF’s revenue stream and income is at the lowest – Uefa is at $4.7-billion, Asia $1-billion and CAF at only $200-million and this has an impact on its competitions. The prize money for the CAF Champions League does not even cover the expenses of participating, it’s the same with the Africa Cup of Nations.
“We also need to establish a close working relationship with the business sector and build better corporate governance. We must pursue the interests of Africa and this message resonated with CAF members and it’s about time we had a leader with a proven track record.”
Reporting by Kgomotso Mokoena.
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