As a Regional Sporting Organisation, the services provided by the Auckland Football Federation (AFF) are reliant on income received from a number of sources including affiliation fees from member clubs, user-pays coaching and representative programmes, Grant Funding and sponsorship.

Those revenue streams service the many direct and indirect costs associated with running an organisation responsible for the football and futsal experience for over 20,000 players, coaches, referees and volunteers.

Operating without a dedicated administrative and playing Home of Football, AFF pays for facilities hire for competitions, events and meetings, maintain our administrative office premises, employ staff to deliver competitions, club capability and development programmes, promote the game, pay for the database which underpins football, provide the necessary level of facilities, equipment and coaching for representative talent programmes and pay entry fees for national league competitions at senior and youth level.

For the 2018 year, fees collected from affiliated member clubs accounted for 29% of AFF’s operating revenue.

Operating in an increasingly challenging and complex financial landscape, and historically reliant on uncertain and increasingly diminishing sources of Grant Funding to sustain delivery of our core services, the AFF Board have taken the strategic decision to realign the fee structure charged to member clubs in 2019 season.

AFF and NZ Football Membership and Competition Fees 2019

Given the above, the AFF Board have approved membership and competition fee changes for the 2019 season as outlined in the attached schedule which will be invoiced to clubs on a per player basis. The NZ Football Board have confirmed 2019 per player membership fees as outlined in the schedule (unchanged from 2018 season).

AFF have adopted a clear differentiation in the amount invoiced per player across the football competition pathway. This variance is largely reflective of the differing levels of service provided by AFF in the competitions accessed by the member, this allowance includes – but is not limited to – the appointment of referees in only certain divisions of competition.

Moving forwards

AFF has worked hard in the last 18 months to move to a more efficient level of staffing and resource to deliver on its stated purpose and that work will continue over the next year with closer partnership with Northern Football.

Having now completed the necessary due diligence to gain a full understanding of our financial landscape, our Board have guided AFF to a position which can appropriately fund core business delivery in a sustainable manner while reducing our historic over-reliance on Grant Funding.

Ultimately that will leave more Grant Funding opportunities available for clubs as we focus our attention on creating and developing further commercial opportunities which will help bring the cost of participation down for members and drive the continued growth in both the quantity and quality of football and futsal in our Federation.

Article added: Wednesday 28 November 2018