The South African Football Association (Safa) is no stranger to bungles and shambles. The latest arrived in the form of a simple administrative exercise: applying for visas to travel to North America for the Fifa World Cup for Bafana Bafana, the national senior soccer team.On Sunday, the final national squad, announced last Thursday, was to have departed the country to compete at the World Cup in North America. It didn’t, thanks to administrative bungles. Those charged with administration slept on the job. Consequently, visas weren’t processed for some players and administrative staff. This led to delays in their departure. As late as last week, some personnel still did not have travel documents, despite South Africans having known for months that their national team has qualified to compete in the World Cup. This is not the only case of incompetence by Safa. It’s one of many and perhaps the most embarrassing. It’s not uncommon for national team players to have their pay disputes only resolved days before tournaments are played. Typically, this would only come after threats of a strike, portraying the players, rather wrongly, as greedy. (Brandan Reynolds) Safa has also not covered itself in glory by being tardy in addressing gender gaps in pay. A year ago, Bafana Bafana lost three points because of an avoidable mistake in the fielding of Teboho Mokoena, a player who shouldn’t have been played. A textbook example of sheer incompetence. Quite rightly, Fifa frowns upon governments interfering in the beautiful game and national associations that administer it. Still, Safa, which has been led by fraud-accused Danny Jordaan for a long time, could have asked the government to assist in procuring the requisite travel papers ahead of the team’s planned Sunday departure. Asking the government to help wouldn’t constitute interference. Over the weekend Safa’s leadership had to convene an emergency meeting to resolve this self-generated crisis. For showing up to resolve this “little inconvenience to them”, they had to be rewarded. In a well-run organisation this wouldn’t happen. As Peace Mabe, the deputy sports minister, said, heads must roll. Accountability starts at the top. Firing junior officials doesn’t sound like accountability. In a normal organisation, including Jordaan’s political home, the ANC, he would have been asked to step aside after being charged with fraud. Ironically, as the debacle was unfolding this weekend, he was preparing for another of his court appearances. It would be churlish to discount his contributions to South Africa. Together with his nemesis Irvin Khoza and the affable Molefi Oliphant he contributed to the successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in our country. Before that he contributed through his political activism. However, his brief stint as executive mayor of Port Elizabeth is contentious. His octopus-like grip on South African football is another subject of controversy. He has managed to outmanoeuvre his contenders at every elective conference. Which brings us back to accountability. If schoolboy blunders like these continue happening under his watch, then the head honcho ought to carry the can. In this instance the blame squarely falls at his door. There is a serious argument to be made that football in this country ― from grassroots to professional level ― would be in a much better place if it had stronger administration over the decades. South Africans deserve better.