Football South hoping to bolster its cash reserves
THE messages were largely positive from last year’s performance, although building cash reserves remains a focus for Football South.
That was one of the key challenges identified at Sunday’s annual meeting.
The federation returned a net operating surplus of $55,042, up on last year’s deficit of $57,196.
However, once depreciation, doubtful debts and provision for unrecoverable artificial turf expenditure were taken into account, a net deficit of $54,401 was booked.
That was a $14,000 improvement on 2016 and leaves total equity of $106,103, although chairman Matthew Holdridge said a focus would be placed on building further cash reserves this year.
Among the key positives for the year was the progress made on the proposed artificial turf.
Both Holdridge and CEO Chris Wright said $3.05 million of the required $3.8 million had been raised.
Wright said the federation was hoping to be successful with its final funding applications.
If that and everything else goes well, construction will begin this spring.
Growth in club and futsal playing numbers were one of Wright’s highlights of the year, as was a growth in the girls’ and women’s game.
All up, 20,000 people had been involved in ‘‘positive football experiences’’.
His key objectives for 2018 were largely developmental, with both the Southern United academy and coaches academy under way.
The new South Island club league — which begins at the end of June — was a third innovation.
Meanwhile, at the top end the performance of the Southern United teams at national league level was also praised, as was the quality of coaching now evident throughout the region.
The postponed Southern Premier League top of the table clash between Dunedin Technical and Queenstown FC will be played on June 16.
The game had been postponed due to weather conditions making the Queenstown Events Centre ground unplayable on Saturday, a decision made on Thursday.
A free weekend had been left between the premier league and South Island league to allow for a situation such as this.