FA IN SIHLANGU, U-23 FINANCIAL DILEMMA

MBABANE – With the national team Sihlangu and Under-23s set for a busy 2015 as they all have important tournaments to play, the National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS) is worried about finances.

So serious is the issue of finances that a highly-placed source at the association said financial challenges cannot be ruled out next year especially for the senior team Sihlangu which have to play in the COSAFA Cup, African Nations Championships (CHAN), Africa Cup of Nations 2017 (AFCON) qualifiers and World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

“We have the Under-23s set to play four times against Zimbabwe early next year as they play the All Africa Youth Championships qualifiers and the Olympic Games qualifiers which is such a huge cost itself and if you consider that we get E1.25m quarterly then it’s easy to tell we’ll run out of funds in no time as we’re now in the third quarter,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

The official said what has been the problem for the NFAS is that from a layman’s point of view people think of the E5m as a lump sum yet even if it came like that, it still would not be enough as it does not only cater for the senior squad but the junior squads too.

“When we host a country we also have to cater for some of the expenses including the match officials who we fly, pay allowances and accommodate which can take up to more than E150 000 often times and then go on to pay the players’ allowances which means one international game can cost us more or less half a million Emalangeni,” said the official.

He said as it is this was not enough, they still must have money to fly out of the country which means they will have to fly the Under-23s twice to Zimbabwe in this instance and if they progress further expenditure will be even higher yet the funding was scarce.

Efforts to get NFAS CEO Frederick Mngomezulu hit a snag as his cell-phone rang unanswered and later was unavailable as he is reportedly out of the country. Acting CEO Comfort Shongwe, when reached, confirmed that they were aware of the challenges ahead, hence they have forwarded their proposal to government.

“Because I was away myself and not yet officially aware I’m acting CEO I wouldn’t like to respond now but yes, the challenge is there but we’re hopeful we will maybe get someone to partner with us to assist government as international games come with a lot of costs,” he said.

Shongwe said they would also await government’s response on their over E20 million budget proposal and then they will take it from there but he acknowledged that the CAF games were the most costly especially when the north African countries were involved.

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