
The South African Football Association (SAFA) presented its audited financial statements to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation on Tuesday, 30 April 2013. The audited financial statements are for the year ended 30 June 2012 and was presented to SAFA’s Members at the SAFA Annual Congress in September 2012 where it was duly approved. The audited financial statement of the Association was announced in a press conference on 29 September 2012.
The financial statements were audited by KPMG who issued an unqualified audit opinion. KPMG also issued a “clean” management report which dealt with financial governance matters.
SAFA reported a loss for the year (1 July 2011 – 30 June 2012) of R56.4 million. This loss included non-recurring losses amounting to R28.8 million. Therefore, the actual loss from our core operations was R27.6 million. However, SAFA managed to build reserves (retained earnings) over a number of years and the accumulated reserves at the beginning of the financial year, 1 July 2011, were R98.7 million. Thus, after incurring the loss for the year of R56.4 million, the net reserves were reduced to R42.2 million after taking into account the loss for the year.
A negative liquidity gap of R92.9 million was a concern to SAFA and strategic plans were crafted and are being implemented to close this liquidity gap. All efforts are being made to close this gap so that we are able to settle all our short term debts as and when they accrue. However, SAFA’s total assets are still more than its total liabilities. The total assets are R224,5 million and the total liabilities are R182.3 million, hence the excess assets of R42.2 million. These are the net reserves that we have built over the past years and which are noted above.
Our 30 June 2012 audited financial statements clearly indicate that SAFA is not bankrupt and, instead, it has reserves valued at R42.2 million. The liquidity gap of R92.9 million within a strong balance sheet is a clear indication that most of SAFA’s assets are not current but are long-term. In other words, the long-term or non-current assets cannot be turned into cash quickly. So SAFA’s cash is locked in non-current assets which include immovable properties, investments and motor vehicles.
SAFA’s strategy of eliminating the liquidity gap includes tightening its budgetary controls, development of a robust fund-raising strategy, diversifying our revenue streams, selling non-core and unproductive assets, realizing our investments and rearranging the payment periods for some of our current liabilities. Some of these strategies have already been successfully implemented. These include the selling of our excess Hyundai buses, selling some of our immovable property and disposal of part of our investment in Netcare Limited.
The SAFA management is satisfied with the strength of SAFA’s balance sheet and the reserves that it holds. SAFA is not bankrupt. The audited financial statements are available at our offices. The full presentation made to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation on 30 April 2013 is available on SAFA’s website –
http://www.safa.net