The Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI), which last year had its Sports Council funding rescinded following controversy over the association's 1997 accounts, is confident that a "healthy net profit" can be returned by the end of the current financial year.

The association's 1997 figures have still not been balanced and losses of over £200,000 were recorded last year. But a representative of the SJAI's newly retained accountants, Chapman, Flood Mazars, this week reported on the SJAI's dramatically altered financial status to the first full meeting of the newly-formed national executive since the resignations of 11 of its members last October.

The turnaround is said to be due to the implementation of new management structures and rigid control of expenditure since the beginning of November, with a profit being recorded over the past three months. Membership fees and registration of horses and ponies for the coming season should go some way to correcting the financial imbalance, but it is still unlikely that the SJAI will be considered for Sports Council funding until the 1997 figures have been cleared up satisfactorily.