FFA suffers major profit dive
Football Federation Australia has suffered a dramatic slide in its profitability for the financial year to June 30, even though government subsidies helped them to break even on staging the Asian Cup.
Australia’s peak soccer body could only muster a net profit of $259,000 – down more than 95 per cent on the 2014 bottom line of $7.2 million.
While average A-League attendances rose by 1.3 per cent to 13,215 last season, the FFA’s revenue from normal operations (excluding the Asian Cup) fell by more than $13 million to $104 million.
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The 2014 profit was boosted by a string of one-off revenue items including a broadcast revenue windfall for qualifying for that year’s World Cup in Brazil.
The federation’s latest balance sheet shows that it has net assets of $7.7 million and no material bank debt to worry about.
FFA also revealed in its accounts that the cost of organising the Asian Cup eventually came in at lower than expected.
The organising committee for the Asian Cup still has more than $20 million sitting in bank accounts.
Most of the cash will be returned to federal and state governments, who provided grants to cover the cost of hosting the event.
The A-League grand final between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC was broadcast live to 57 countries and was measured as the most watched Australian domestic football match in history.
About 650,000 Australian householders viewed the event; while up to 300 million international viewers saw it on free-to-air and cable television in 54 countries.