The South African Football Association has banned 15 officials for life for trying to take the national association to court in violation of FIFA rules.

SAFA says the officials from the central Free State province should have resolved their grievances over voting procedures in the run-up to the election of Danny Jordaan as SAFA president in September through the football body and its ''mechanisms and structures.''

Describing the officials as ''malcontents,'' SAFA announced that they were expelled from all football activities. SAFA said the expelled officials were from three local associations, while members from a fourth were cleared of wrongdoing after ''distancing themselves'' from any court actions relating to SAFA.

Jordaan, the 2010 World Cup's head organizer, was elected to lead SAFA on Sept. 28.

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