How SA benefits from new Fifa funding

Land Mark decisions announced in Mexico City at the weekend are a potential windfall for SA football, which is currently stagnating and in urgent need of a lift.

For the SA Football Association a massive boost in monetary assistance from Fifa, which is likely to have a positive impact on both youth and women's football, has been announced.

SA clubs will also likely benefit from a decision to double the size of the group competition in both the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup from next year, presumably creating the chance to earn prize money from competitions that are taxing on resources.

Fifa's congress in Mexico City - which Safa president Danny Jordaan missed for the third successive time - announced several fundamental changes, not least the distribution of more World Cup profits to member associations.

From next year, the group phase of both the Champions League and the Confederation Cup will be expanded to 16 clubs from the current eight, CAF president Issa Hayatou announced.

There will now be four groups of four teams instead of two groups, presumably with one less knockout round, which will go a long way to saving money.

Safa will see their grant of R25-million from Fifa increased three fold to around R77-million over a four-year cycle as new Fifa president Gianni Infantino keeps his election promise to distribute more money to member countries.

This means Safa will have annual access to roughly R12- million for projects like pitches, competitions and women's football and a further R7-million for running costs including administration and governance.