There's still plenty of work to be done on Safa's Fun Valley Technical Centre, with R600m estimated for it to be completed to the state-of-the-art centre envisioned.
In 2015, Safa bought the resort for an estimated R65m to develop it into a technical centre for the national teams. Its progress in development has been slow and steady as the project requires a lot of money.
The money required to fast-track the development of Fun Valley will be made available and sourced this year, according to Safa's CFO Gronie Hluyo. Whispers of the football mother body being in financial trouble were rebuffed by Hluyo on Friday during a press briefing at Safa House.
Hluyo conveyed that Safa's finances were sound and that they have been receiving unqualified audits (financial statements are fair and appropriate) on their financial statements over the past 20 years and can fund its teams and competitions.
With the new financial cycle from 2023 to 2026, the organisation is set to get grant increases from Fifa and CAF. The Fifa operational funding will increase from $1m (R16m) to $1,25m (R21m) and the project's funding will go from $2m (R33m) to $3m (R50m). The grant from CAF will also increase from $300,000 (R5m) to $1m (R16m) whilst the association is set to retain their main sponsors and attract new ones, thanks to Banyana Banyana.
Given the large sum of money needed to improve Fun Valley, Hluyo said they will use money from the Fifa projects grant for the development.
“For us to complete the full project when we did our estimate five years ago we needed R600m, that’s quite a lot of money and to be frank we don’t have R600m lying around but we are going to try and get funders so that we can try to complete the project," said Hluyo.
“We have done a lot at Fun Valley, you would see that there’s been a lot of improvement; we have upgraded the rooms so that our teams can stay comfortably, we’ve built a wall around the whole centre and constructed one artificial pitch and two natural grass pitches. So at least the centre is usable and the team can stay there and train.
“I must say there is still a lot to be done at Fun Valley and funding is the constrain, we’ll try to get as much support as we can, Fifa is giving us money for projects and we are going to use that and approach some corporates and government which will be able to assist us," he said.
About R600m still needed for Safa's state-of-the-art Fun Valley Technical Centre to be completed
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
There's still plenty of work to be done on Safa's Fun Valley Technical Centre, with R600m estimated for it to be completed to the state-of-the-art centre envisioned.
In 2015, Safa bought the resort for an estimated R65m to develop it into a technical centre for the national teams. Its progress in development has been slow and steady as the project requires a lot of money.
The money required to fast-track the development of Fun Valley will be made available and sourced this year, according to Safa's CFO Gronie Hluyo. Whispers of the football mother body being in financial trouble were rebuffed by Hluyo on Friday during a press briefing at Safa House.
Hluyo conveyed that Safa's finances were sound and that they have been receiving unqualified audits (financial statements are fair and appropriate) on their financial statements over the past 20 years and can fund its teams and competitions.
With the new financial cycle from 2023 to 2026, the organisation is set to get grant increases from Fifa and CAF. The Fifa operational funding will increase from $1m (R16m) to $1,25m (R21m) and the project's funding will go from $2m (R33m) to $3m (R50m). The grant from CAF will also increase from $300,000 (R5m) to $1m (R16m) whilst the association is set to retain their main sponsors and attract new ones, thanks to Banyana Banyana.
Given the large sum of money needed to improve Fun Valley, Hluyo said they will use money from the Fifa projects grant for the development.
“For us to complete the full project when we did our estimate five years ago we needed R600m, that’s quite a lot of money and to be frank we don’t have R600m lying around but we are going to try and get funders so that we can try to complete the project," said Hluyo.
“We have done a lot at Fun Valley, you would see that there’s been a lot of improvement; we have upgraded the rooms so that our teams can stay comfortably, we’ve built a wall around the whole centre and constructed one artificial pitch and two natural grass pitches. So at least the centre is usable and the team can stay there and train.
“I must say there is still a lot to be done at Fun Valley and funding is the constrain, we’ll try to get as much support as we can, Fifa is giving us money for projects and we are going to use that and approach some corporates and government which will be able to assist us," he said.
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