FFA power brokers hail Socceroos triumph

"True thoughts on football"..? Pointing out that the government doesn't set the junior registration fees is hardly earth shattering, punter - it's actually a pretty balanced response to Uncle's "blame the government" post. But thanks for taking the time to comment.

We also "built" it by not having competitive games in order to qualify for the Asian cup.

I love it when you show your true thoughts on football AR. King of the spinners.

Bear in mind football has one of the lowest TV deal yields yet must also fund national teams for all ages of both genders to travel around the world for matches and tournaments. By contrast the AFL makes the most money from TV and only has to fund a biannual junket to Ireland.

Lovely rhetoric, but back it up with data. Until the FFA can fix prices their ain't a God dam thing they can do about prices set by clubs. And to be clear, I am not accusing clubs of gouging (although some so called academies do). Clubs are simply seeking to cover their costs and tart up their infrastructure a little here and there.

Supply and demand, inflated in part by a lack of investment by government in football grounds as a barrier to new supply and competition ( I.e. clubs) and the absence of any lawful way for the FFA to fix prices. The FFA are however driving greater financial transperancy via the regulation of its now national NPL competitions. It's a small start given the modest number of clubs involved (about 100), but their hands are tied. They can reduce fees for their own elite partway programs where they exist, however revenue would need to be found to offset this. Ultimately the only way relief will be found will be for additional supply to be found.

So, how is that the FFA's fault? That was the original point you were trying to make. You suggested Gallop needs to explain the high fees. What has any of that $1200 fee got to do with the FFA? What can Gallop do to do to stop clubs charging those fees? We operate in a society which allows private sporting clubs to charge whatever they like. Are you suggesting Tony Abbott introduce legislation to regulate what sporting clubs can charge players?

So, the $1200 that NPLV club charge junior must go to towards paying their senior players. These clubs are sucking the blood out of the game. Their dreaming if they think that they will ever play higher than the state leagues.

I don't know what other sports charge for registration, but the annual fees for kids aged 12-18 are: $12.60 (FFA) $73.40 (FFV) for total $86.00. For kids 4-11, the FFA fee is the same, but FFV fee is only $45.60 for a total cost of $58.00. Are these fees too high? Of course the club fees are much higher, but parents understand that private football clubs can charge whatever they want just as parents understand private schools, private dance classes, private music tuition also can charge what they want. But, the FFA fee is incredibly reasonable. Is the FFV fee is a bit high? If the FFV fee were $20 rather than $73 I don't know how many parents who would be jumping around like they'd won Tattslotto. The high price of playing football is the fees charged by private sporing clubs. As long as the clubs are private organisations, I can't see how the FFA can regulate what they charge. Re: infrastructure, the problems is lack of infrastructure. There are fields that lay vacant because they are assigned to Rules, but no one ever plays because there are not enough kids to fill junior Rules teams in our area. But, every football club in the league has a long waiting list for kids wanting join, but there aren't enough fields to create more leagues.

"All the parents at my kids’ football clubs realise the problem is not with the FFA, but with State and Local Governments." Well, all the parents at your kids local football clubs are a bit misguided. The playing registration fees (which are notably higher for soccer than the other 3 football codes) go straight into the pockets of FootballNSW and the FFA. The governments do not set the fees - the sporting bodies do. And when you consider that...at present, almost every pitch and shed and dressing room and stadium used for soccer around Australia is 100% funded by government (be it local, state or federal)...the attitude of "blame the government" is not quite on target.

Nick I have no fear Gallop will be focused on the A-League, he has already said on public record the success or otherwise of the national team is not as important as the A-League.

I hope Gallop and co do not treat football like cricket or rugby and focus on clubs, domestic comps rather than the national team alone. When I read/hear them I sometimes feel they want to make the socceroos a brand like others did with the wallabies, kookaburras or whatever they are called. football is no rugby or cricket, supporters must have a club first then support their NT, not get behind the national team every 2/4 years when there is a major tournament. One of the priority should imo be to have a longer, stronger domestic league, later on a 2nd pro div, and create the structures to accommodate young quality players and not have them poached by overseas clubs.

I cant see how local and state governments are to blame. The costs of ground rental is the same for all codes. Football is the peoples game, not some elitists sport . David Gallop needs to make it so.

My guess is it costs more because the demand to play football is so high and clubs are able to keep increasing prices without people moving to alternative products? It would be great to have more infrastructure devoted to football which would increase the supply and costs would fall. Lets hope State and Local Governments realise they need to allocate more infrastructure to sports that people want to play and less to sports that few want to play but because those sports make huge donations to State and Local Governments they buy a monopoly on infrastructure. All the parents at my kids' football clubs realise the problem is not with the FFA, but with State and Local Governments.

David Gallop is right to say their will be a spike in junior participation after the Socceroos victory in the Asia Cup. He just needs to explain to parents why it costs 50% to 100% more for junior to play football, compared to the other codes.

Adam in the lead up to this tournament we had a very poor record in all our games since the WC so nobody knew how we would go!!!

Adam, have you ever heard the expression "playing in finals is different"? Why?Because finals are knock-out. There are no 2nd chances, so the pressure is immense compared to matches that are played during a league format. And, for international tournaments the pressure is much much greater than any domestic club sport competition since the hopes of a whole nation rest on the shoulders of the boys on the pitch. Additionally, for a tournament like the Asian Cup, the pressure intensifies even further since players only get 1 chance every 4 years. Unlike The Ashes, where Aussie cricketers know if we lose this match, we still have more matches to get things back on track; and even if we lose this Series who cares we've already qualified for every Ashes played every 2 years for eternity. So, beating Kuwait, Oman, China, UAE and Korea would be no big deal if they were friendlies. There is no pressure with friendlies. But, this was a 3 week tournament. Few Aussie sportsmen will ever encounter such physical and mental pressure over 3 weeks. I can't imagine any players involved with sports that are big domestically experiencing such intense physical and mental pressure.

6 years ago, yes. But we earned our ranking of 102, albeit by playing the very best teams in the world while rebuilding our squad. The importance of this win (one of many) is that it reinforces the direction our national team(s) and associated development pathways (themselves still under construction) are taking. We want to build footballers in Australia, not just hope they are born.

Serious question, not a troll question as I am asking from abroad; While it is good to win a tournament, if Australia had been playing these matches in isolation, not a tournament, as the home team would they not have been favourite in every match, and significant favourite in most matches?