SAFA’s healthy financial status

The South African Football Association (SAFA) has reported that it’s on a sound financial footing. The financial stability of the Association is underpinned by the following factors:

1. Long-term sponsorship contracts 

We have long-term sponsorship contracts with most of our partners. The average term of our contracts is 4 years and these contracts are renewable.

We have had successful and long-term relationship with reputable South African corporate giants like South African Breweries, Sasol and South African Broadcasting Corporation.

• FIFA funding

FIFA funds all its Member Associations through a programme known as FIFA Forward. The funding is structured around 4 year cycles; therefore, funding is guaranteed each year for each cycle.

• Assets

The Association has high value properties and this strengthens its balance sheet. The assets include SAFA House, whose market value is estimated in excess of R100 million, and the SAFA National Technical Centre (Fun Valley) whose cost value, including upgrades, is about R100 million.

• Most of the liabilities are being liquidated regularly.
• Regular payments are being processed to the SAFA Regions.

This is of paramount importance because most of the football development occurs within these Regions. In recent financial years, the following total payments were done:

1. 2019 we paid   R8.8 million
   1. 2020 we paid   R12.5 million plus an additional R6.3 million Covid-19 grant which was paid directly from the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust
   2. 2021 we paid   25.6 million
2. Payments to other stakeholders like players, referees and clubs are also being done regularly.

In addition to meeting all these financial obligations, the Association has robust financial governance processes in place and these include:

1. Preparing annual financial statements and having them audited within 6 months of the end of each financial year. In this regard, the Association matches Johannesburg Stock Exchange requirements for listed entities to have audited annual financial statements within 6 months of the end of the financial year
2. The Association has always received unqualified audit opinions which is an excellent achievement
3.  The Association has properly constituted governance committees that oversee its financial affairs. These committees include
   1. Audit and Risk Committee chaired by Mr Bennet Bailey
   2. Finance and Procurement Committee chaired by Mr Mxolisi Sibam
   3. Remuneration Committee chaired by Professor Mark Bussin
4. Our audit annual financial statements are published on our website and available to anyone to scrutinise. We believe in transparency hence we have included the last 9 years financial statements on our website.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust (“the Trust”) closed its affairs on 28 February 2022. The Association received crucial grant funding from the Trust since 2013. This funding made a significant contribution to the overall development of football in country. The Association received direct funding of about R430 million and this was utilised towards the following programmes:

1. Purchase of the SAFA National Technical Centre (Fun Valley)
2. Developments at the Centre which included installation of a boundary wall and construction of 2 (two) natural grass pitches
3. Local Football Association (LFA) leagues
4. Women Regional leagues
5. Men’s Regional leagues
6. High Performance Centre football academy
7. KwaZulu Natal Academy (Hoy Park)
8. National Women League
9. Setting up of Provincial Executive Committees
10. Junior National teams
11. Schools Football

We are hugely indebted to the Trust and we are expressing our sincere gratitude to them for this generous funding over the last 9 years.