The South African Football Association (Safa) has managed to claw its way out of a R45-million deficit and is expected to report a healthy R23,1-million surplus at its ordinary meeting at the Sandton Convention Centre today.
Safa was in the red a year ago but chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo said the turnaround was achieved after they implemented prudent measures that helped reduce costs substantially during the financial year ended June 30 2017.
"We are reporting a surplus of R23,1-million and that is a huge surplus from last year when we reported a deficit of R45-million," Hluyo said."In the Safa congress last year, we indicated to members that we had a financial turnaround strategy which we gave to them in detail.
"We managed to cut costs considerably. One area where we saved quite a significant amount of cost is on staffing - the salaries."
Safa chief executive Dennis Mumble confirmed that he let go of five people because of poor performance during the financial year under review and did not replace them.
Accommodation and air travel are Safa's biggest expenditure each year and the five-year partnership with South African Airways (SAA) contributed significantly to the cost-saving.Hluyo said they made a significant saving on accommodation and instead of spending millions on hotels, they used Fun Valley in the south of Johannesburg. The facility housed national men's and women's teams when they went to camp.
Safa bought the 38-hectare Fun Valley property for about R85-million and it will house the National Technical Centre that will boast world-class football and athletics pitches, a hotel and an Olympic-size swimming pool, among other facilities when it is completed.
"We saved a lot on accommodation because for this full financial year, Fun Valley was in place," Hluyo said.
"So most of our [national] teams now stay here [at Fun Valley] for most of our activities except for Bafana [Bafana have an accommodation sponsorship with a certain company].
"Some of our coaching courses are now conducted at Fun Valley and we no longer pay for hotel facilities and accommodation elsewhere," he added.Safa and the national carrier penned their partnership agreement in March last year and Hluyo said the contract was concluded towards the end of the last financial year.
"They [SAA] came in the middle of the previous financial year and this year we got full benefits of our agreement, enabling us to save quite a lot.
"Our biggest costs are air travel, accommodation, players' bonuses, allowances and staff salaries, and regional grants."
Safa also benefited from the various funding programmes and grants introduced by football governing body Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
Fifa has also identified member nations that travel considerable distances to honour international fixtures and given that South Africa is located at the southern tip of Africa, Safa were reimbursed - $175000 per year- for the expenses they incurred.
The association also renewed sponsorship deals with long-time partners Sasol and South African Breweries during the financial year ended June 30.
ntlokom@sundaytimes.co.za..