SAFA President Danny Jordaan responds to reports about TD’s possible exit

In an interview with SABC Sport on Friday, on the sidelines of the CAF Broadcast Academy launch, Jordaan revealed that he had been with Steenbok at a Coach Educators Course at SAFA House.

Earlier that day, FarPost reported that Steenbok was planning to leave the organisation, citing lack of support as one of the reasons.

But Jordaan says he wasn’t aware of that.

"Well, I was with the TD now, I come from the TD, we had all the coach educators and we gave them certificates and so on. So, I don't know what happened after I left, whether it happened after, but I don't know anything," Jordaan said.

Steenbok, a former Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs chief scout who will soon graduate with a PHD from the Tshwane University of Technology, is credited with turning around SAFA's technical programmes since taking over this position in September 2022. After a six-year wait, he engineered SA’s return to the CAF coaching convention, bringing CAF A and B licenses back to the country.

Jordaan has more on Steenbok’s impact in coaching programmes.

"And underlying that was the quality of the coaches. We have trained, many, many coaches and this was a focused programme where we said we must get quality coaches and not wait for one coach that comes from Europe once in a blue moon then  he gies back; it's not gonna help us,” he added.

“We have to deal with the issue on the ground level and we can see, our Under-17's, the football they play, the under-20, the football they play there is an emergence of a particular brand of football that all our teams are playing and it is all about coaching."

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Under Steenbok, SAFA junior national teams have also been revitalised, effectively using the support of the FIFA Technical Development Scheme (TDS).

The U17 and U20 men's national teams are heading to the Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and possible FIFA World Cup qualification is on the cards.