The pitch for the whole of football

In bringing football facilities and the quality of pitches into sharp focus in yesterday’s State of the Game address, FFA CEO David Gallop has given the clearest indication yet that the FFA needs to take action on what the game is played on.

One of the first hints at the governing body’s seriousness at aligning quality pitches to the quality of the game was when recently the FFA hosted, in conjunction with the Asian Cup Local Organising Committee, a football pitch management conference for the first time.

While pitch condition varies for the A-League and can be uniformly poor further down the tiers, what the FFA via Gallop has indicated yesterday is the availability of playing fields for the masses at grassroots level has become a key point for the game.

“Facilities are at the heart of our game, but how can we thrive as a sport when the space to play remains a critical shortage?” he said.

Lack of facilities, poor to non-existent lighting as well as lack of space are just some of the complaints flagged over time from those involved at grassroots. Add to that list poor surfaces due to a lack of drainage, or overuse because of the lack of space and restrictions from other stakeholders who must share the playing fields.

While the Nation Plan for the Whole of Football will be broad based rather than process driven, it will outline what checkpoints along the way indicate those goals for each criterion have been met.

I suspect for pitches and availability, the FFA will prepare a strategy that sees itself – via its member state federations – be more proactive in engaging regional and state government in recognising the need for fields and facilities.

As with other key aspects of the national plan, other activities that the FFA will undertake, like engaging corporate Australia for greater investment in the game, will highlight the interconnected network each measure has in driving how the other aims of the plan will be realised.

For those at the grassroots level, the availability of fields is going to be part of the equation. For those engaged in youth development, aligning availability with quality pitches and facilities will underpin youth development along with quality coaching education and coach availability. It will require funding supplemented from corporate Australia, and engagement with councils, community and government.

For all those stakeholders, the benefits may be different and it will be the FFA that will need to work on highlighting the benefits to each group through its members.

This focus on facilities and availability I believe will also have a bearing on A-League and NPL clubs as well and may be the first target if the FFA continues its top-down approach to implementation.

The impending FFA Cup Round 16 tie of Sydney United 58 vs Sydney FC may have more riding on the game than the result given that it is being played at Sydney United’s artificial grass covered home ground.

This could well be an early glimpse of providing quality pitches at NPL-level at what is going to be the short-to-medium term engine room of youth production in Australia.

Taking a look at Newcastle and early signs of how the state of pitches across the board could be aligned from grassroots up shows the need for a co-ordinated, active strategy from FFA as part of the National Plan for the Whole of Football.

• Close suburban neighbours New Lambton FC and Lambton Jaffas FC – the former has lighting installed to increase hours for training while the later needs more lighting for the same. Both suffer from poor quality drainage and surface affects from weather. Both have limited space, with New Lambton running out of space in its second ground in nearby Alder Park. Much work with Newcastle City Council needed to improve these grounds. These are common themes across Newcastle.

• Northern NSW Football are in the final stages of completing its football complex at Macquarie Football. The Speers Point Facility will become the new HQ of Northern NSW Football, contain two all-weather pitches and ten all-weather small sided pitches available day or night all year round. Potential for Newcastle Jets to relocated from Ray Watt Oval in Newcastle University as well as Emerging Jets and join Northern NSW teams in using facilities for training.

• With the right owners, the Newcastle Jets could redevelop the park along Monash and Turton Road across from Hunter Stadium as the new training HQ for the Jets youth, women’s and men’s teams. In conjunction with the new Northern NSW NPL Champions Lambton Jaffas, develop Arthur Edden Oval at western end as home ground for Jets Youth and the Jaffas in winter, and Jets Youth and Women in the summer. Coupled with Lambton High School backing onto these fields, incorporate the Emerging Jets teams in a football curriculum as part of the school and youth academy on quality pitches

• Resurfacing underway at Hunter Stadium for Asian Cup and A-League. With the right strategy and consultation with stadium tenants (NRL team Newcastle Knights) ensure pitch quality in subsequent A-League seasons remains of a high quality post-Asian Cup.

The sheer size of grassroots football will mean a long-term approach to increasing available playing pitches let alone increasing quality of facilities. With youth development a high priority focus with the impending appointment of the new FFA Technical Director, quality surfaces for technical development may take priority in the first instance of the plan and see more complexes like the one being developed in Northern NSW spring up, or emphasis on better surfaces at NPL clubs and state clubs.

Driving this will need to be a proactive FFA, with a long term view to increasing the strength of the game at all levels, fuelled by smart lobbying of funding, along with engagement from the local to federal government, to realise the full potential of football on and off the pitch.