'Safa is not broke': Association hits back at reports its coffers are running dry

The South African Football Association (Safa) has dismissed reports that it is in financial distress.

Reports claimed Safa was about to introduce retrenchments that would see the association lose a significant number of its administrative staff due to cost-cutting measures last year.

Were this to happen, it would be the second time in two years. Safa laid off employees in 2019.

Last year, TimesLIVE reported the association was not able to appoint permanent junior national team coaches because it didn’t have money to pay them.

Despite this, Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe feels the claims the association is broke are unfair.  

“We want to deal with this notion of saying everywhere you read about Safa it is said that ‘Safa is a bankrupt association.

“Everyone who wants to talk about the finances of Safa, it’s either the 'ailing Safa or bankrupt Safa’,” Motlanthe said.

“Even though we have publicised our financial statements every year, people still decide to disregard them.

“Even though you have (some) people (association) who declare (loss of) many millions but you have never branded them as broke associations. It’s only in football,” he said before giving Safa CFO Gronie Hluyo a chance to assure the media its finances are healthy.

However, Hluyo couldn’t say whether the association had made a profit or loss in its last financial year, saying only the media needs to check its published audit report.

“Unfortunately, we have seen a number of reports stating that Safa is broke, but it's actually the opposite,” Hluyo said.

“Safa’s finances are healthy and in order. In fact over the last 20 years, we have been receiving unqualified audit reports.

“As Safa we have never failed to fund our activities in general. We make sure that our national teams play.

“You have never had a situation where a team couldn’t participate, whether it’s U17, U20, U23 or the senior national team. All our teams participate. We have never failed to participate because of financial reasons. It shows that we have the funding and we are using that funding where it is supposed to go,” he said.

“In terms of the future outlook, we believe that we are on a sound footing financially.

“We have guarantees in terms of the grant from Fifa. Fifa gives two types of grants: one is for organisational costs to fund our operations and the second one is for projects.

“The Fifa cycle starts from 2023 to 2026 which is in line with the Fifa World Cup. So for the new cycle which is starting this year in 2023, Fifa has increased its funding from $1m (R17m) per year to $1.25m (R21m),” Hluyo explained.

“That’s what each and every Fifa member association will be getting per year.

“Fifa increased the project funding from $2m (R34m) per cycle which is the four years to $3m (R51m) per four years.”

Hluyo said the bigger portion of the R51m from Fifa is earmarked to be spent on the development of the controversial Safa National Technical Centre in Fun Valley.

Apparently the Fun Valley project will need about R600m to be fully completed.

The Safa coffers are set to be boosted by more money from the Patrice Motsepe-led Confederation of African Football (Caf).

“We also received a grant from Caf. Caf used to give us $300,000 per year as a grant and that for all the member associations of Caf,” Hluyo said.

“Now Caf after their recent meeting in Algeria they announced that the grant has been increased to $1m (R17m) per year. That is guaranteed.”

Hluyo also said they get a big financial boost from their long-term sponsorship deals and claimed they were about to announce more backers.