Safa money turnaround is working

Safa’s financial turnaround strategy should soon yield positive results.

The organisation’s chief financial officer, Gronie Hluyo, this week told City Press that they were expecting at least R63 million from their sponsors in the next two months.

This publication has also learnt from a highly placed source within Safa that they are to unveil new sponsors soon.

One is believed to be a telecommunications company and another is a ticket-selling entity.

Last month, the association announced a five-year sponsorship in kind with SAA to be an official partner for Bafana Bafana.

This was an indication of a change in Safa’s financial affairs after CEO Dennis Mumble appealed for more funding, saying they needed an extra R200 million a year to run successful programmes.

At the time, Mumble said they needed about R15 million to implement the programme that Banyana coach Vera Pauw proposed after the team qualified for the Rio Olympics.

The programme includes camps and playing friendly matches. They have already played two away friendlies against Cameroon.

Pauw said she was going to use her trip to Brazil, where she attended the Olympic draw, to secure more countries for friendly matches.

The national Under-23 male team also needs to play matches to prepare thoroughly for the Rio Games. They went to Brazil last month, but the trip was fully paid for by the hosts.

Mumble said they were looking for similar deals, but said they were hard to come by.

Hluyo also dismissed information from an employee who told us on condition of anonymity that they had been told to reduce their spending to keep the company afloat, as the organisation was planning to lay off some staff.

“Where do you get that from?” asked Hluyo this week. “We are not about to reduce our head counts or salaries. We are in a stable state.”

However, he said they needed to spend wisely to avoid going into the red.

“We have already started some cost-cutting measures in all areas of the business, such as cutting down on travel and reducing our cellphones bills. It is a continuous process,” said Hluyo.

“We are about to receive our scheduled payments from the end of this month. I can safely say we are in a healthy state, but obviously we could do with more.”