Danny Jordaan, the President of the South African Football Association
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Danny Jordaan, the President of the South African Football Association (SAFA) has parried claims by the Ghana Football Association that the burden of proof with respect to their petition at the Federation of the International Football Association (FIFA) lies on them.
Danny Jordaan says that FIFA should be concerned with the integrity of the game and investigate the matter instead of relying solely on evidence from SAFA.
He defended the ‘right’ of the South African FA to petition FIFA and chided the GFA for criticizing them.
He says that SAFA has given FIFA a lead that he hopes the football governing body will follow up to uncover what SAFA views to be match manipulation.
“It is our democratic right to exercise the provisions and the statutes to exercise or rights and as we said, it was Senegal’s democratic right to look at the statutes and exercise their options.
“And no federation must cast aspersions when a particular federation exercise their right. What they have to do is to submit proposals to amend the statute to say, no, nobody must question any decision of any match, just leave it.
“But while those provisions are there, it is in our right to exercise it and we are exercising it on behalf of the federation, on behalf of the people of our country and we will not apologise to anybody for exercising our democratic right.
“An investigation is an investigation, they have to follow the lead and when you ask for investigation, you say can you investigate this particular aspect. You cannot then say, no, you open a case with the Police they, must investigate. They cannot tell you go and bring all the evidence… FIFA has the best capacity for investigation and that was proven in the Senegal vs. South Africa match,” he said.
The GFA in their response to the petition by the South Africa FA challenged the South African FA to back their claims with evidence.
The statement which was signed by Henry Asante Twum, the Communications Director of the FA accused SAFA of seeking to destroy the image of the football and the Ghana Football Association.
On November 14, 2021, Andre Ayew converted a first half penalty to grant Ghana a place in the play-off stage of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The penalty was awarded after Ghana defender, Daniel Amartey, was ‘impeded’ in the South African penalty box on the 33rd minute in a game played at the Cape Coast Stadium.