Football has had a facelift, now time for some implants

In the past 10 years, initiatives like the A-League, National Curriculum, National Youth League and the proposed Australian Premier League have seen football take a leap in professionalism in this country.

But has this been enough to ensure a steady rise in the footballing world?

On the face of it, yes, we are competing in our third consecutive World Cup, we just sent a team to the under-20s World Cup and the A-League is attracting players with a level of talent previously unattainable.

In reality I’m not so certain we’re doing all we can to be the best footballing nation we can be.

The key to development in sport is opening up pathways, for athletes to compete at the highest level possible, and I don’t think football is as open as the title ‘the World Game’ suggests.

Look up ‘Indigenous soccer’ on Google, you’ll get a handful of sites and initiatives aimed at bringing Aboriginals to the game, away from their more favoured destinations AFL and rugby league.

Now look up ‘Indigenous rugby/Aussie rules’. You’ll be inundated with teams, programs and information on competitions – hell, a grid iron team is the first thing that shows up when you type ‘Indigenous football’ into Google.

We are being left in the dust when it comes to the first Australians and it needs to stop.

For too long, football has been seen as the domain of the city kid, for this to change we need to show them the levels Aboriginal people can reach with football.

In AFL you can win a grand final and a Brownlow Medal, in NRL you can win State of Origin and a Daly M, in football you can a World Cup and a Ballon D’Or. Weighing up the options, I know which I’d choose.

We have to show them what they can achieve, we have to show them they can be more successful in football.

A massive marketing campaign should do the trick, aim it at schools in remote areas and tell them the stories of Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o. Both came from humble beginnings to set the footballing world alight with their skills.

Sharing the success they’ve had with their communities and various charities, weigh that up with simple Brownlow and Daly M medals, I think I know what they’ll choose.

Next thing, we should be touting Australia as a destination for young footballers from overseas. Countries like Japan and Germany have benefited from this approach, with many of their star players having heritage from other countries (very surprising for anyone who knows how stringent the Japanese immigration laws are).

If we take in footballers from Africa and South America with a view to naturalise them, we’ll be adding to the stocks of Australian football immensely, giving these youngsters a better life and a better career. It’s something even FC Barcelona does (the prime example being Lionel Messi, who they discovered at a young age and helped treat his growth hormone deficiency).

It’s already working for us, coincidentally, with the likes of Nikita Rukavytsya and Dario Vidosic leading the long list of footballers who have donned the green and gold but were born elsewhere, so why not work at bringing youngsters to our shore for that very purpose?

The next step is to have better academies; we need to be attracting elite experienced youth coaches to our top-level youth factories, coaches with a better idea on how to develop young footballers than whoever worked on the ‘National Curriculum’.

I’ve had a look at the National Curriculum and there are far too many drills. Picture for me a Melbourne backyard, circa mid 80’s, do you think Mr Viduka was watching his son play in the backyard ticking off drills on some sheet? No, he was showing the game he loved to his son and letting a natural sense of play develop.

With many parents opting for football despite it not being their sport of choice, not every young player has the same passion at home, so natural footballing skills must be developed on the junior parks and ticking off drills doesn’t let that happen.

We’re looking too much at the end product and not focusing on what it takes to get there.

Think of the streets of Brazil, their young players are well versed in football before even stepping on to a pitch – street football is a big thing there, it lets kids sort out their own skills in a highly competitive environment without the pressure of a coach worrying what they can tick off on some list.

Countries with football in their blood play all year round, which brings me to my next point; the shortness of our A-League season.

Coming in at a measly 27 rounds over a paltry 25 weeks, the A-League is a very short supper when compared with the English Premier League’s 38 matches spanning a whopping August to May period. It all adds up to some starving fans in Australia, not to mention some very unfit players.

What I’d suggest is looking at Europe to see how they handle things. In many countries it’s common for larger teams to put youth and reserve teams in lower leagues, it’s also common to see youth teams grouped by their area rather than what league their senior team is in.

Every A-League team should have a reserve squad competing during the winter with the reserves of the state league teams, it will solve fitness and preparation issues and give the reserves of state league teams better opposition to test themselves with.

Youth teams should operate during the winter in a similar capacity. Get the youth team of an A-League team playing against a state league team and if a player does exceptionally well against the A-League Youth team, guess where that young player might end up?

The A-League? Bingo!

You get my drift, another avenue for an athlete to play at the greatest level they can play at.

Last but not least, we need better supporting roles; the level of opportunities for education in football specific roles is appalling.

We need scouts, we need position specific coaches, we need youth development specialists and the ‘all-sports’ approach of the universities of Australia offering courses in sports science just won’t cut it.

There needs to be more information available to anyone willing to take these backroom staff roles so that our footballers are supported by the best staff education can possibly offer.

And before anyone asks the question of money, it’s simple, we’re the most profitable sport in the country, millions of dollars a month are turned over to football administrators, if we get these administrators to fork over some of that to fund these initiatives I’m sure that will cover it.

Looking forward we have a lot to do and a lot to demand as football fans, better infrastructure for a stronger footballing nation.