As my children are now entering the age where my weekends are going to be gleefully jam-packed with trips between local sporting grounds, and I have started to learn what friends of mine have been saying about junior football in this country.
Sitting around with friends for the past 20 years, a main topic of conversation has always centred around us curing all the ills of the game in this country.
With the A-League seemingly getting on solid ground, there is not much to complain about these days, except the current state of the Socceroos and the future of them.
Last weekend my best mate raised some very valid points about how if we think this current batch of Socceroos are finding the going tough, where will we be in 2030, when hopefully one of our kids may be donning the green and gold (a father can dream can’t he)?
Some very pertinent points need to be raised here, that may be boring to some but what I believe will be vital to us seeing our next ‘golden generation’.
Football in this country is the only code where the junior part of the sport actually funds the senior part of the sport. As we don’t have billions in media rights deals we can throw at our juniors, our junior registration fees etc. actually fund the upper echelons of the game, in complete reversal to the other codes.
I don’t particularly care about us knocking other codes off their perches (as I believe there is enough love of sports in this country to cater for everyone) but the dollars issue is becoming a major problem in the game.
My junior club told me that registrations in the district are down almost 30% on last year. I was stunned as to why people are turning away from our great game and asked my mate as to why – as he is heavily involved in junior football in the area.
Firstly, registration fees for juniors at local level are about $120 for the year, plus you have to buy boots, shinpads, socks and shorts. Not too bad you say.
When you compare it to rugby league and AFL – where registrations fees are often nil and the shorts and socks are thrown in as well – parents must be starting to think seriously about the hip pocket and enrolling their kids away from football.
Then, if a child has any potential, a few things can occur. Aside from coaches hunting the parents down to enrol their children in costly academies to help them realise their great potential, once you get to rep teams the cost of registrations and equipment can be upwards of $2,000 for a year!
So if you have a naturally gifted sporting child you may prefer them to play one of the other codes, where you end up with more money in your pocket per year.
Also they will be playing a sport where if they really excel, at least as overprotective parents you can have them close to home rather than tramping through the lower divisions of Western Europe in pursuit of their dreams.
I know that the above scenario will only apply to a very small proportion of kids, but have a good look at what the AFL is doing at the moment.
Following the success of Karmichael Hunt (rugby league), Mike Pyke (Canadian rugby), Tadgh Keneally (Gaelic football) and various others like Scott Pendlebury and Dean Brogan (basketball), they are spreading their scouts around the globe in search of ‘athletes’ who they can train into AFL footballers.
It will not be beyond the realm of possibility that if your child is playing rep football and ticks all the boxes, you may find an AFL scout at your door wanting to run your son thru some drills.
And if he is offered an organisation-funded attempt at a professional sports career rather than a parent funded one, as a parent you would have to consider.
So in 2013, how many potential Socceroos may be playing other sports? Will there be another junior football prodigy like Steve Waugh as captain of the Australian Cricket team? Or another Hazem El Masri giving up the round ball to lead the way with the oval one?
We were always going to have a down period after the golden generation of 2010 left the game, every national team has one.
The Australian cricket team is experiencing one at the moment, the Portuguese national team hasn’t had one since Figo and his cohorts missed out in Euro 2004, and the Australia Labor Party hasn’t found one since Bob Hawke and Pau Keating departed.
We have to ensure our next golden generation is not lost to other sports.
We are in a world where the family budget can only stretch so far. The FFA and relative state federations have to get their act together and find a solution to this problem.
The Socceroos and A-League need to urgently become self-sufficient so precious resources can start to roll back to the bottom tier, otherwise there is a phrase about pushing sh*t uphill that may unfortunately become rather apt.
gumpy
Guest
Well if the recently-revamped Age keeps selling like it has since its conversion to tabloid format, there may not be a Herald-Sun to worry about for too much longer ;)
Punter
Guest
Yes it gets boring!!! I'm a middle age man & taken my 2 girls from young uns to teenagers for the last 8 years to A-League matches & never felt threaten towards me or my girls over these years, yet you read these sort of articles & like you said, you'd think its a warzone. What sport does the Herald Sun support?
Paul
Guest
If anything will kill our game, it's the constant negativity in the media. The Herald-Sun, that great supporter of our game, has yet ANOTHER negative headline today and reading the abstract (unfortunately the whole story is behind a paywall) would make anyone think A-League matches are a warzone. While people of our age may know better, parents and grandparents of potential child players and spectators may be influenced.
Griffo
Roar Guru
...and this yesterday from David Eland, CEO of Northern NSW Football via Newcastle Herald: http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1420787/eland-to-push-for-reduced-rego-fees/?cs=306
Griffo
Roar Guru
Yes. What you do with the numbers is important for we have no critical mass of talented players emerging yet (even more critically, fewer youth coaches) at a technical level that other nations are starting to produce, in numbers. The big question on grassroots and raising the levels there will be a huge undertaking. How that will occur and what that might look like and when are important questions. 'Impatient' is the state I think we should be in regarding the realisation of football development. Fewer nations are standing still in this regard. As mentioned in some posts, grassroot clubs are a miriad of resources, dedication, goals and ideals. But when looking around at community clubs, at the mum and dad volunteer coaches attending grassroots or junior licence courses, you know that anything that is going to be done in the future is either going to ignore this very bottom layer of the football pyramid, or radically change it to something different to what we see on every spare park on weekends today. The 'coaches supplied with kit' clubs will be the next layer up...and the most likely to benefit... ...but the risk of FFA making the elite development of future club and national players too narrow is all too real I think (cue AIS as a national finishing school). To get the critical mass the FFA will have to embrace multiple pathways and entry points (testing more than the U8's). On the former you will have not just the FFA/State pathway but private academies, emerging football schools, and dedicated clubs. FFA should use these to push along development, rather than hinder it . At the pointy end in future all A-League clubs should have their own youth academies and junior teams; probably most state premiere league clubs will as well even more than they do now. For as the A-league grows, more players will be needed; the APL will affect the need for quality players as well as that competition grows. All the while the need for more youth coaches to be produced as well. The Skill Acquisition type programs seem to be isolated dots that will (hopefully) all get joined into a cohesive, structural whole sooner rather than later. Hopefully well before 2030.
Peter Wilson
Roar Guru
This is a breakdown of Nepean District in west Sydney: http://www.nepeansoccer.com.au/mydocs/Linda%20Cerone/2013%20Registration%20Fees%20-%20Full%20Breakdown.pdf FFA gets 12.50 of the rego fee. They don't have any money to subsidise junior clubs and help reduce fees like NRL and AFL can with their billion dollar + media money.
Nigel Wakeley
Roar Guru
Good article, I thought that since football is a relatively low-risk sport (compared to obvious contact sports such as rugby or AFL) parents would be more inclined to sign their kids up for that. I know in the US there is a good deal of concern over the future of the NFL - thousands of ex-players are suing the league over injuries sustained while playing, and each year the league introduces new rules in an attempt to make an inherently violent game safer. The worry for the NFL is that parents will look at sports like soccer, basketball and baseball and sign their kids up for that rather than the more dangerous American Football, and thus the feeder system into the NFL will dry up.
pete4
Guest
48 weeks training at 4 nights a week is a lot of junior training sessions in anyone's books... that all I'm supposed to be saying if South Melbourne have takers good luck to them
Brendo
Guest
Pete You are kidding yourself, even when you take out Ground rental, lighting, strip, refs, FFV/FFA fees. There is still going to be over $3000 left. This means each (U12-U18) team is paying $45,000 towards coaching. That's right $45,000 per team. With 8 teams in the U12-U18 age group that is $360,000 that's going on coaching (or to the senior team). And you think this is fair?
Brendo
Guest
From the paper Fussball linked to The rise of soccer. Participation in outdoor soccer has experienced significant growth between 2001 and 2010, from 551,300 participants (Dale & Ford, 2001) to 843,900 (Standing Committee on Recreation and Sport, 2010). This makes outdoor soccer the physical activity with the third highest increase among the top 10 physical activities, after aerobics/fitness and running. On the professional scene, there have also been two significant developments. Firstly, in 2005 the Football Federation Australia launched a new domestic national soccer competition called the Hyundai A-League. Secondly, the Asian Champions League is currently growing at a rapid rate. Industry analysis (McMillan, 2011) indicates that in the long-term (10 years minimum) the Asian Champions League may rival the European Champions League, the largest club tournament in the world, and revenue may be boosted significantly. The high-profile sporting bodies in other sports such as AFL, could aim to follow this trend and establish the competition on an international stage So much to laugh about in that part of the paper
Brendo
Guest
Fussball Don't forget the team entry fees as well (adds $5 to the SSF and $20 to the U12-U18 age group) Refs are hardly discretionary spending and and add $20-45 per player depending on age group. Interesting paper you linked to but I will point out the figures are from 2001-2010, as I have said Victoria has seen the football numbers really level off over the last three years
wilier
Guest
Nothing fair about it. If you think of the squad sizes 3.5K per child is ridiculous.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
The reason junior football club fees are so high is because the demand for the junior football product remains high regardless of the price being charged by clubs. In a free market, every rational private person (or organisation) will charge the maximium amount for his goods or services, without adversely affecting supply. Anyone not charging the maximum for their goods/services is behaving not behaving rationally. It should be noted that only a small part of rego fees is taken by the State Federation & FFA. In Victoria, the fees are Age 5-11 = $58 ($12.60 FFA, $45.40 FFV) Age 12-18 = $85 ($12.60 FFA, 72.40 FFV) The rest of the fee is a discretionary fee charged by clubs to: pay for club rooms (rent, power, flood lights, utilities, maintenance, insurance), sporting equipment, referees, coaches ..and, yes, money is also paid to some senior players. In a report released today, by the CSIRO on behalf of the Australian Sports Commission, Football was the only team sport to experience significant participation growth in Australia. All other team sports remain stagnant or in decline. Full report here: http://www.ausport.gov.au/information/nsr/the_future_of_australian_sport/reports
Towser
Guest
Brendo I've always understood that participation means zilch in relation to an inflow of money to the game. Attendances at professional sport,TV viewing audiences are what counts surely. If that was the criteria(participation) then football & netball would have had big moolah thrown at them years ago,there is no evidence of this. For football in Australia its only recently as its achieved larger attendances & TV viewing audiences that its been able to sell itself at all to anybody.
pete4
Guest
To be fair on South Melbourne they are charging $3500 pp but this includes training 4 nights a-week for 48 weeks a year in total from what I read a while back if you want that option from U12-U18's
Brendo
Guest
Towser The numbers are important for a number of reasons the biggest is that they are used to sell football as a market to sponsors and TV people. More participation equals more money into the sport. However your point is valid, numbers by themselves are not the most important issue. Coaching, Infrastructure and Cultural by far are the biggest issues we have. And of them by far the biggest issue is culture. Too many of our kids have a football at their feet 2-4 hours a week. If we want develop better players we need to get football embedded much more into the primary schools and parks and see this number increase to double or triple that. B
Jaiden Florimo
Roar Rookie
The registration fees in football is an absolute joke and a disgrace.
Towser
Guest
Why are we worrying about numbers,its what you do with the number of players you have that counts. Australia's had good football participant numbers for years,but technically is still behind many of its rivals in Asia. Uruguay has 42,000 registered players, the USA 100 times that amount,who is more succesful historically in Football ? A bit like this saying:- "Never mind the quality...feel the width. Phrase used to persuade you that quantity is more important than quality. Originated from unscrupulous London backstreet tailors palming you off with cheap material instead of the good stuff for your suit."
Midfielder
Guest
BB when he was boss of FFA undertook a special task of identifying 60 key player in each of the age brackets from U 9 to U 16... special training was suppose to happen but the training never quite lived up to the hype... however FFA's claim was they never lost a player they wanted to keep... Tis very interesting question the development of the park teams... my own experience with the pressures of the modern world finding coaches and mangers is difficult for most park teams... and many who finish up in these roles have little to no football experience...however what do you do if no-one puts their hand up... further some teams have no parent with what I would call basic football knowledge... The Mariners have tried to overcome this by appointing coaches to direct the rep coaches in two associations... the Central Coast Association and the Central NSW Association [around Bathurst].... Further the Mariners have an open invitation to all Central Coast or Central NSW coaches to attend any Mariners training sessions where they are taken tho what the Mariners coaching staff are doing .. Further each player in the Mariners squad is given to a CCA club to help with training and get shirts etc... Additionally once a month the CC coaching staff and some senior players go to a club and run them tho how to conduct training for all levels ... Its easy for the Mariners as they exist in a region making it feasible ... however as our league restructures I cannot help but think that associations hold most of the answers to the connection to the park teams ... which is what football in Australia has never been able to do well... The Mariners are but as I said with a small base of teams... The secret as was mentioned by Mike Charlesworth [new Mariner owner] park teams and their associations need to aline with A-League clubs and we need to somehow get the coaching levels improved across the board... the FTA deal will assist a lot in this regard... Long winded HOWEVER until we find a way to connect the associations [who control the park teams and grass roots] to the A-League we will not evolve ... IMO it is the single most important issue FFA need to work on...
Brendo
Guest
The biggest issue we have is the playing numbers are starting to bottom out. I cannot speak for the other states but here in Victoria the growth in the number of teams competing has slowed a lot over the last few years after the massive growth in 2006-09. This year compared to last (based on FFV teams numbers) .............................2012 Teams......2013 Teams Boys (12-18)............759......................790...........4% Increase Girls (12-18).............242......................266..........10% Increase Womens.................130......................132...........1% Increase Mens......................508......................506...........-1% Decrease Cost and ground availability would be the two biggest factors around the slow down imo