Khoza keen to avoid ‘war in football’ over Jordaan claims

Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza does not want “a war in football” sparked by the allegations made against him by SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan.

Khoza called a news conference at the PSL offices on Thursday to refute allegations after a complaint of defamation‚ criminal collusion and conspiracy was laid with the police against him by Jordaan.

Jordaan alleged that Khoza was the catalyst in a rape case opened against the Safa president last month by singer and former ANC MP Jennifer Ferguson.

Ferguson‚ who lives in Sweden‚ laid the rape complaint with the police in Parkview last month.

Jordaan also alleged that Khoza had paid for Ferguson’s flights and accommodation through a third party.

He has, however‚ apparently been caught offside as evidence has since emerged that he allegedly used falsified and fraudulent documentation to open the defamation case.

Ferguson has produced documents to prove that her previously unnamed donor for her trip to South Africa to open the rape case was an Mpumalanga-based non-government organisation‚ The Forgotten Angle Theatre Company‚ via Swedish travel agent Big Travel.

But even as Jordaan’s allegations appear to have been debunked, the entire affair still threatens to plunge South African football into a state of war and jeopardise the crucial thawing in relations of the past few years between Safa and the PSL.

Khoza‚ who is also the chairman of Orlando Pirates‚ said at the news conference last week that he remembered that Jordaan was the Safa official who had travelled to Ivory Coast with the Buccaneers when they beat Asec Abidjan to win the Caf Champions Cup in 1995.
“It is a matter that has affected Dr Danny Jordaan – who is in football‚ and I’m in football.

“It can never be a matter devolved from football‚” Khoza said.

“But at a personal level‚ because I understand the objective – the agenda of what needs to be achieved by football with regard to social cohesion – it’s important I always make sure that I reserve myself‚ and make sure that the course of football is championed‚ more than my personal interests and feelings.

"At that time [in 2009‚ when Khoza was accused of an alleged coup against then 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee chief executive Jordaan]‚ when I did not respond‚ it was an issue of the World Cup as a national priority.

“This time, it’s very important to clear this matter once and for all – it cannot keep coming up.

“It can’t be right for football, because I don’t want to be used as a scapegoat‚ that there is a problem in football‚ and the problem is Khoza and Danny.

“We sat down with Danny. We have achieved so much‚ the two of us. I respect him as an administrator. I’ve done so many things with him that are very positive.

“There’s no way that we can afford for what has been achieved to be destroyed.” – TimesLIVE