Safa expects an end to losses

• Football governing body says its financials look healthy after it exercised tighter control and cut expenses on hotels and cars

The South African Football Association expects to make a financial turnaround and report a R33m profit when the final numbers are tallied by auditors.

The South African Football Association (Safa) expects to make a financial turnaround and report a R33m profit when the final numbers are tallied by auditors for the financial year ending June 30.

Safa reported staggering losses of more than R40m at its yearly congress six months ago‚ but Safa president Danny Jordaan told Business Day on Wednesday that it projected a move back into the black in the current financial year.

The auditors still have to sign off on the final numbers, but Jordaan said the financials had a healthy look about them because of: R10m from the SABC; R11.7m from the Confederation of African Football (Caf);

R4m from South African Breweries; and R8m from the Legacy Trust. Jordaan said he was confident of a complete turnaround

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as more money was expected from other revenue streams.

‘‘The contribution of Fifa will be $1.2m‚” he said.

‘‘We also have revenue from broadcast from Caf‚ which is about R4m. So, that is additional revenue that we have.

‘‘And then on the other side, we have exercised tighter control on expenditure.

“So you will see that we did not have particular meetings‚ there is more efficiency in terms of the meetings of the regions.

‘‘The other thing that we saved on was exercising more efficiency in terms of our teams,” Jordaan said.

“The fact the [junior] teams are now staying at the national technical centre means they are not staying in the hotels any more. This reduced our hotel bill significantly.”

Jordaan said after the losses incurred in the previous financial year‚ Safa looked at areas where it could reduce expenses and improve profitability.

Accommodation and air travel are Safa’s biggest expenses every year and the five-year partnership with South African Airways (SAA) has had a huge effect on the financials.

‘‘So we looked at areas where we could save‚” Jordaan said. ‘‘Accommodation‚ travel‚ both national and international travel‚ and car rentals. Those were the three big areas.

‘‘We are now flying with tickets that we draw from our sponsors, SAA. We are now able to fly all our teams and all our members,” he said. “Our hotel bill and our flight costs were between R20m to R25m each [per year]. That means we have saved about R40m.

“So it is very significant and that is how much we have reduced costs. Our car rental bill was also around R25m. So by buying cars and giving them [the Safa regions] the cars to use‚ there is no charge to Safa.

‘‘We pay off the cars and make a saving in one year.”

Jordaan said he never understood how some critics just keep describing Safa as ‘‘bankrupt or cash-strapped”.

‘‘How could that be? It is not so. There is no ‘for sale’ sign outside Safa House.

“There is no ‘for sale’ sign outside Fun Valley‚ nor on our cars and buses.

‘‘What we do have is better cash-flow management and that is what we must insist on in the administration,” Jordaan said.