Increased Fifa grant a boost for Safa

The cash-strapped SA Football Association (Safa)‚ without a television deal for the national teams‚ will welcome a R29m financial windfall from Fifa, which is increasing the money it hands to member associations from next year.

Fifa’s council has approved larger payments for the member associations‚ most of which are now dependent on handouts from world football’s governing body to keep going because of the absence of sponsorship and decreasing state support.

Safa‚ and all the other Fifa members‚ will now be given $2m every year in funds, which amounts to R29m at Monday’s exchange rate.

It is an increase of R4.7m annually on the previous sum and comes as Fifa president Gianni Infantino seeks re-election in 2019.

Fifa allows Safa to spend about R14.3m on operational costs each year but says the rest of the money must go to predetermined development projects.

In SA’s case‚ the new development centre at Fun Valley has been paid for from the Fifa funds.

Fifa has warned its member associations that the money must be accounted for and has promised better policing‚ though in practice past warnings have not yielded much.

A Fifa statement said: “Accountability for funds allocated will be further strengthened‚ with even stricter auditing and reporting measures.

“For example‚ each member association or confederation will have to engage the services of a statutory auditor and will be subject to a central audit review undertaken by an independent‚ high-profile‚ international auditing company.”