No one has ever questioned the work ethic of our football federations and rightly so. Given a choice between working smarter or harder, they always go the latter.
You’d think FFA would have seen the positives in Clive Palmer singling it out for a bit of treatment, like certain governments have after years of copping loathing from their own constituency.
Here, finally, was an identifiable enemy outside the window, not inside the mirror.
Suddenly you could cut the goodwill for FFA with a knife.
The possibilities ought to have been endless, but having the punters onside must feel to football governors like they’re resting on their laurels, so out went Kyle Patterson and the spin doctors to blow up the bridges again.
Palmer said he wanted to know why football cost $300 for a six year old.
If that’s a misrepresentation with potential to damage the game, then obviously football needs to get out there and crush it.
A good PR flack will do that, without suggesting that it’s a potentially fair point or that junior fees might actually be too expensive for the game’s own good. Taking their lead from Big Tobacco, they would attend to perceptions and let realities look after themselves.
So what are the realities of junior fees?
If anyone knew what the big picture was it would be state federations, but they don’t.
The state federations deliver exactly the kind of responses to questions and complaints about club fees you’d expect from federations accountable to those clubs’ representatives. (They’re looking into it, have been for five years, and they will continue to look into it.)
All I know for sure is some kids at one club in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne were charged $450 for Small Sided Games in 2011, while another club nearby charged $120 for the same program.
Rumour has it that another club wanted $350 but some say it was only $250 plus some other stuff. As for the other 600 or so Victorian clubs and the thousands nationwide, you can ask them yourself.
What I do know though is that no club that I am aware of charges six year-olds $300.
Clive Palmer, you were wrong!
That’s the mundane little game our football federations have elected to play with Palmer and his Football Australia, which would be all well and good if no one actually played football and the numbers were all academic.
Remember? Football is the biggest participant sport in Australia and the majority of those participants are kids who don’t actually need FFA or Football Australia guessing roughly what junior fees are. They already know. it’s on their parents’ bank statements.
Anyone can say what they like about junior fees but the only minds they’ll be changing are those too far from the action to matter.
In the absence of credible big-picture fees information from either side, that leaves FFA and its affiliates wresting over fresh air with Football Australia for hearts and minds.
So which side most deserves the football community’s trust?
That should be a no-brainer. How could an outfit like Football Australia ever establish itself as a more credible voice in the eyes of the football community than the football community’s very own football federations?
As it rightly should have, Football Federation Victoria decided to weigh into a raging social media discussion sparked by Palmer’s comments about junior fees.
FFV decided to tweet the cold, hard facts to football journalists.
Thinking about it, it’d be a pretty silly move trying to pull any wool over anyone’s eyes at this stage, with trust being the issue and there being something like fifty thousand kids on FFV’s books paying clubs anything from a couple of hundred dollars for a year’s football to, according to the rumour mill, a couple of grand.
You could try to fudge the numbers if you wanted to but you’d never get away with it.
“FFV fee for a metro 5-11 year old is $45.50, 12-18 year old is $68.50,” FFV tweeted to one and all.
Yes, but you can’t actually play exclusively for FFV or any other federation. One has to play for one of its member clubs, and it’s what they charge that counts.
Anyone who actually plays football will be well aware of that; even Clive Palmer is aware of that.
There is little use trying to convince no one who matters that junior football is cheap as chips – they’ll find out soon enough if they do decide to play. This kind of approach just lends credibility to Palmer’s claim that football federations are in urgent need of a watchdog, and that they need head and heart transplants.
For its trouble, FFV might as well have just knocked up a recruiting poster for Football Australia, or failing that, been disciplined enough to keep its mouth shut and its fingers off the keypad and leave at least a little bit of doubt about what kind of game it plays over fees.
Adding insult, FFA still hasn’t fixed the typo on Kyle Patterson’s job description. It’s meant to be voice for the terrace, Kyle, not voice of the terrace.
Patterson, was fresh from prompting football supporters to reach for their sick bags by telling Brendan Schwab to put down his Chairman Mao book, after the PFA’s CEO had the audacity to stand up for Gold Coast players while their club was being exterminated. From there, Patterson decided to shed some light on Palmer’s FA.
“This is another sideshow that has nothing to do with advancing the interests of the game. Football has democratically elected bodies from the grassroots to the state federations and up to FFA at the national level.”
Tiddywinks enthusiasts might be won over by that but football supporters know all about their democratically elected bodies, why their constitutions are fundamentally different to those recommended in the Crawford report, who benefited from those recommendations being scuttled, and why to the average punter it has amounted to taxation without representation.
Realistically, if there were anything besides junior fees FFA oughtn’t be drawing attention to right now it’s the nature of its democracy, because that’s handing even heavier ammunition to its critics.
So, yes, nice work, Kyle and company – two bullets, both feet. And Football Australia hasn’t even begun the research that will draw the bleeding obvious correlations between eight years of expensive “new football” at the grassroots, the redefinition of “elite player” based on financial wherewithal, and the effects that won’t become apparent before youth squads are failing in international competition.
Nor have they addressed that turning that around will take at least another eight years, nor why some football federations are culpable in the extreme for assigning cheap-trick spin doctors to hose down burning issues, that for football’s sake demand being addressed with real skills and intelligence.
Bondy
Guest
Michael. I thought all active sports doesn't matter which sport they play were about participation and guiding your child down the right pathway, not trying to figure out how much can I get for free. Do you take your family to the cheapest doctor to see how much you get for free " lollies and a stethoscope perhaps" ? Michael, I'm not suggesting your lying but why didn't you keep asking people at your local football club about where fees / money goes surely somebody with a brain would've told you at the club, instead you go to a website were everybody is completely anonymous .
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Michael I don't know what the fee paid to Football NSW - but it would only take a phone call or email for you to find out. In Victoria, for kids aged 12-18 only $68.50 of the annual fee paid to the club is the "registration fee paid to the FFV". The rest of the money is kept by the club (ground hire, insurance costs, utilities, equipment, etc.). My nephew, who is 14 years pays a total annual fee of $300 to his club. That's the total amount he pays to the club each year & it includes the $68.50 FFV fee, home & away strip (i.e. 2 shirts, 2 shorts, 2 pair of football socks, shin pads), player insurance, referee fees. Seems very reasonable to me. In relation to your observation that: "At ages 13-15 i notice the football teams struggle to get players- I wonder why ....". You're kidding, right? There is sufficient anecdotal evidence that football clubs - all over Australia, for every age group - are bursting and can take no more players. In Victoria, a study found that 5,000 juniors had to be turned away by football clubs in Melbourne because there is insufficient infrastructure (football pitches) to satisfy demand. By contrast, in Victoria, even AFL clubs - at the suburban level - have been merging & reducing the number of teams they field due to lack of numbers. It's not worth discussing the lack of kids playing Rugby or League - neither sport has any traction in Victoria. By all means, feel free to stick the boot into anything to do with football but to suggest "football teams struggle to get players" is simply ludicrous.
michael
Guest
My son who is now 13 has been paying between $290- $330 for subs over the 4 years in Sydney and gets little for it. Many times we have questioned about where all these subs go and why it costs so much. One response included the fact that the local association in NSW was obliged to remit a large sum of this to the nat association. Can some one confirm this for me. As comparsion my son plays rugby on sundays and he only pays $179 for this plus he gets subsidised shorts and socks included. none of this from his football club. From the little i know, the FFA have all these grand plans and spend big to achieve them but very little is seen at the grass roots. At ages 13-15 i notice the football teams struggle to get players- I wonder why...........?
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Interesting that Lahm, a fullback at Bayern, made the world top ten highest paid footballers.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
All valid points but not the FFA's fault. Dugald is trying to lay the blame squarely on the FFA.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
The FFA can't do that and you know it. The AFL is a closed shop run by the Central Bank of AFL and set the rules for all clubs. The FFA doesn't have the same model.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
If you want examples of outrageous money being spent in football, how about this ... http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2931/go-global/2012/03/20/2979241/in-pictures-mourinho-guardiola-wenger-the-10-managers I guess it's a case of "high risk" requires "high reward"
TK
Guest
My son played SSF last year here in Brisbane at U6's and paid around $250. No paid coaches - all volunteers, me included so I can vouch for not getting paid - though the Club did fork out for grassroots coaching. This year the same club was charging a tad over $300 for U7's, so we left and went to another club where fees were $250. We still pay for boots, socks, shorts but the club provides the shirts. One area that I think many of the large clubs spend money that isn't really warranted in on paying players in their senior teams to go round on the weekends. Seriously - getting paid to play premier league in my view is a joke and robs clubs of vital income that they could otherwise use to make it cheaper for kids, spend on their grounds buy equipment, pay for coaching courses etc. But of course it is common place in many clubs, so they all feel they have to do it - though I have also been at a club with a policy of not paying players - they were right up front about it and anyone who wanted to play and get paid had to go elsewhere. This resulted in an excellent Club ethic without a lot of the crap I've seen about who gets paid what, and the Club built teams that were very competitive and had players that were there to play for the love of playing rather than the cash - a cliche but true.
TK
Guest
My son has played in qld for the last 2 years. $250 per year in fees. I reckon clubs playing players at semi pro level doesn't help keep costs down.
AL
Guest
In relatn to this artical. To quote Vinnie Barbarino "what"?
Trust Me
Roar Rookie
The flat earth people are about to reclaim Queensland and get rid of CIA funded schemes to stop Palmer making more money. Won't be long before Sokka will be outlawed and all you football followers will have to flee south to avoid persecution and jail.
Futbanous
Guest
Well our election is this Saturday & Clive is a big supporter of & has much influence on the Conservative parties who are supposed shoe ins. Prepare for the Botanical gardens to be ripped up and turned into an open coal mine & the bush turkeys on Mt Cootha to be relocated to Southbank where they can compete with the Ibis for food scraps. MT Cootha then can be turned into a giant waterslide. Oh happy days.
dasilva
Guest
I think the issue here is with youth development. We want as much kids playing football to increase our pool of potential socceroos. If there are kids out there who have the potential to be great soccer players but never had that potential realised due to the high cost of playing football then that isn't good with our ambition to be a top tier football nation and to win the world cup (as johnny warren believes that should be our ultimate ambition). Sure our participating rate is high compared to other products in australia but is it high compared to other football nations around the world? Therefore it should be a long term goal of this country to cut the cost so that more people will play the game and hopefully a larger talent pool. Of course maybe it isn't financially viable right now to cut the cost. I don't know the inside books of the various clubs in Australia but cutting cost should be a long term goal so that grassroots football is subsidised by the governing body rather than the governing body is subsidised by the grassroots.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
I personally don't mind Dugald contributing thought provoking articles, even if most may not agree with him. In his last two articles I have questioned this belief that Palmer's actions can somehow benefit the game - I just don't believe that's possible - but there are lots of soccer fans who actually applaud Palmer's actions. Anyway, here is another reason to be doubly concerned about Palmer's state of mind. He has just been quoted accusing green groups of being funded by the CIA. Now I personally don't have any time for green groups either, most of whom appear to evangelise about environmental issues in a manner not too dissimilar from religious fundamentalists, with science and economics being secondary considerations. But it truly takes some creative thinking to believe that the CIA could be funding green groups. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-20/palmer-says-green-groups-funded-by-cia/3901920
pete4
Guest
Football NSW is also building a $40M training complex in West Riverstone (Western Sydney outer suburbs). 15 pitches, Admin building, Futsal centre and Hotel.
neos osmos
Guest
Duggy wrote: **“FFV fee for a metro 5-11 year old is $45.50, 12-18 year old is $68.50,” FFV tweeted to one and all. Yes, but you can’t actually play exclusively for FFV or any other federation. One has to play for one of its member clubs, and it’s what they charge that counts. ** FFA errs in refusing to acknowledge the problem. Imagine how the AFL would respond if it saw a local club making their game exclusive by charging $600 a season. They come down hard. FFA/FFV run the game in Victoria. They can make any demands they like. Setting a ceiling on fees (say $250) would be a terrific step.
Futbanous
Guest
Football NSW earned its rich tag by its own efforts. I did a coaching course way back when out in the sticks of Sydney at Parklea if memory serves me correctly. Football NSW as far as I know bought & developed the same land ,now known as Valentine Park. Football NSW & the rest of the states may have taken ,but they also have given to football over many years in the form of development. That development particularly by Football NSW has produced many Socceroos,so there is a point. If it had all been left to the ASF & Soccer Australia prior to the FFA I doubt we would have produced so many quality players that played in big Overseas Leagues without Soccer NSW's efforts during that period. Sure we can argue that the whole state FFA relationship can be streamlined to benefit the game as a whole,but IMO the FFA do not deserve yet(given their predecessors past administrative history) to run the show entirely. IMO the FFA needs the states & the states need the FFA. The Country is too big for the FFA to be able to run the game efficiently on their own.
Trust Me
Roar Rookie
That's not my reading of the article, Dugald never mentions any local clubs, its always the FFA's fault. Clubs are indepenent bodies and there is no way the FFA or anyone else could determine how much each club charges - that's restraint of trade at the very least. There is s difference in price because of differences of what you pay for and what you get. Some clubs hire professional coaches and use $120.00 shirts, whereas other clubs are run by volunteers, coached by dads and use $30.00 shirts - so there's a price differential, just like buying a car. To suggest this is the FFA's fault is absolutely ludicrous.
jbinnie
Guest
Trust me- Have just read your "link" and you are only about 20 years out of date for D Gelati was a board member of Soccer Australia in 2003. The election I speak about was in 1983 or 1984 and I think you will find that not long after that event Frank Lowy "retired" from football and did not re-appear in an electable position until 2005 so we "lost" his expertise for 20 years.Cheers jb
jbinnie
Guest
Trust me- You don't get my point?.First of all you tell me an annual general meeting and the type of voting used in it is NOT democratic,and I do my best to prove to you that a "democratic" election is simply where the government of a body is picked by the people who are involved at all levels of that body. What do you find hard to understand in that.? Your last statement is mind boggling and lacks total credibility. Let me ask you a question?. Does Frank Lowy influence the FFA?. As the sitting chairman you had better believe he does. Now he cannot influence the ASF, they are no longer in existence, but to try and set you straight,as chairmen of one of the most successful teams in the NSL Hakoah,Eastern Suburbs,Sydney City ,yes, I believe he would have had some political clout in high places but not enough to get him elected into the higher echelons in 1983/4. Now I may be wrong for I am depending on a fading memory here but I always thought the man who beat him in that election was Sam Papasavas,but I could stand to be corrected. Was the election"corrupt"?,technically no, for people stand outside at general and state elections and try to convince you how to cast your vote,but I'm not so sure they would be allowed into the building and stand over your shoulder, telling you who to vote for, that is what was happening at that election,not all elections, ,just that one, which I attended and,I am not afraid to say it, by my choice ,it was my last. jb.