Johannesburg – South Africa's football governing body says it is financially secure after the 2012 financial report showed a loss of more than R50 million.
“Good financial governance lies at the core of any business,” SA Football Association (Safa) CEO Robin Petersen said in a statement on Saturday.
“Achieving an unqualified audit, even one that indicates a trading loss, is absolutely vital.”
The report showed a loss of R56 million, according to Safa, though “R30 million of this loss involves non-recurring amounts such as the impairment of assets”.
The federation said losses from core operations amounted to R27.9 million, which was the result of increased expenditure on national teams and increased investment in football development.
“In accordance with our mandate, we invested in football, with the national teams' expenditure rising by R15 million owing to a full programme of matches for all of our teams, including the Olympic preparations of Banyana Banyana,” said Safa president Kirsten Nematandani.
Petersen said, according to the KPMG audit, the federation believed it was implementing the correct actions to put Safa back into the black on a sustainable basis.
“These actions include reducing costs, the sale of unproductive assets such as the excess World Cup buses, and working within a committed revenue budget as opposed to targeted budgets as in the past,” Petersen said.
“We must emphasise that we are set on exceeding the committed revenue budget through prioritising further sponsorships which will, in turn, release funds to accelerate the implementation of the new technical master plan.” – Sapa