Malta FA consolidates financial position in 2016-17

The Malta Football Association’s efforts to consolidate its financial position are reaping the desired rewards. Presenting the audited accounts at the Annual General Meeting, Ivan Mizzi, the Association’s Honorary Treasurer, told the assembly that the financial report for the year ending March 31, 2017, attests to the MFA’s healthy financial situation. “2016-17 yielded a fresh injection of capital,” Mizzi said. “At the last UEFA Congress, held in April 2017, UEFA announced a solidarity payment of €1 million to every national association after reporting increased revenues from Euro 2016. “This sum of money certainly helped to boost the Association’s cash flow.” Also this year, the MFA started to benefit from FIFA’s new funding programme, FIFA Forward, which encompasses income revenues previously spread across several programmes. Today, the MFA can receive up to €750,000 in financial under the FIFA Forward programme. The MFA’s total income for the year ending March 2017 nearly hit €8 million, of which €7.15 million originated from the Association’s operations plus a grant of €750,000 from the government. The Association’s annual expenditure was €4.43 million with the financial results showing a surpluse of income over expenditure of €1.8 million after depreciation. “Spending on infrastructural projects and domestic competitions remains significantly high,” Mizzi said. “Over the past year, we completed the pitch project at the National Stadium which led to a notable rise in the costs for its maintenance. “More than €1.1 million have been spent on the rent of grounds, payments to match officials, interest on bank loans to finance the installation of new pitches for our clubs and other direct projects involving our clubs over the past year. “It is also worth mentioning that the €56,000 derived from disciplinary fines have been added to this fund to cover part of the outlay on domestic competitions.” Mizzi said that, after several years when the Malta FA’s foremost priority was to improve the clubs’ infrastructure, the Association is once again starting to increase its accummulated fund which currently amounts to €600,000. “Thefore, the balance sheet has been consolidated with a positive reserve balance. Total assets just exceed €15 million,” the Malta FA Honorary Treasurer concluded. The MFA’s Finance Department is led by Mizzi and Kurt Loporto, the Deputy Treasurer.