We hear a lot about the production line of talent to the Socceroos breaking down, but is the problem only going to get worse given how expensive it’s getting for juniors to play the game?
Reader Tim Malafouris contacted me recently to ask me to write about this topic and share his thoughts on what he called “the biggest problem in Oz football today”.
Cost, says Malafouris, is one of the main reasons forcing talent to leave the game. He’s not alone in his assessment.
My friend Jeremy Medina is a passionate supporter of all things Australian football, and two of his sons were recently selected for representative teams in Brisbane.
“Bill $2700 and that’s cheap,” tweeted Medina. “Football becoming a sport for the rich. Too many talented kids can’t afford this.”
It’s a sentiment we’re hearing time and time again. And for a country that only recently produced world-class talents like Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, there are worrying signs the well is starting to run dry.
“So many issues in football yet no one talks about the crippling and inflationary cost of participation,” said Perth Glory chief executive Peter Filopoulos on Twitter during the week. “A major issue which is being ignored.”
When even A-League clubs are recognising the problem – and it’s worth remembering their connection to grassroots football hasn’t always been apparent – it’s safe to say it’s a concern creeping into the greater consciousness.
So what’s the problem? Firstly, it’s the fact that average upfront fees for football can be more than double what it costs for juniors to play Aussie rules or rugby league.
In many cases parents are paying more than $400 just to sign their children up for a junior team, and that’s generally excluding additional costs like team uniforms and match fees.
Then there’s the raft of clubs at National Premier Leagues level that can charge up to $2000 for kids as young as six to receive elite tutelage from highly-paid coaches.
Yet the suspicion has long been that some clubs are using junior fees to pay senior players to run around for the first team.
However, the A-League doesn’t come out of this scenario smelling like roses either.
The lack of a domestic transfer system means NPL clubs receive barely a few thousand dollars when one of their players moves to the A-League, meaning there’s no incentive to develop players to be on-sold domestically for a profit.
Little wonder the Association of Australian Football Clubs is hell-bent on creating a national second division.
The problem, at its core, comes down to misguided governance. The disconnect between Football Federation Australia and clubs further down the chain has never been greater.
(Image: Twitter/FFA)
If the FFA’s remit is to oversee the whole of football in Australia, then they’re guilty of turning a blind eye to the growing range of problems festering underneath the A-League – the cost of junior fees among them.
That said, some unscrupulous lower-tier clubs are only too happy to rob Peter to pay Paul.
It’s costing us kids, and as Malafouris pointed out to me, ultimately impacting the amount of talent a coach like Ange Postecoglou has at his disposal.
Fans who turn up at AAMI Park and tune in to tonight’s blockbuster between Melbourne City and Sydney FC will enjoy watching the likes of Australian-made talents Luke Brattan and Brandon O’Neill go around.
But how much longer will that be the case if parents can’t afford to let their kids play the game?
There’s a running joke in Australian football circles that we don’t have enough favelas to fuel a production line of talent.
But we have enough football fields.
The problem is, by the time parents get ready to unleash their kids on them, they’re often thousands of dollars out of pocket and already questioning their commitment to the beautiful game.
Trent Williams
Guest
This is by far the biggest issue which affects everything from the ground up. If you don’t have affordable prices for kids to participate in football then you will lose them to other sports. I have 3 kids playing football and each of them play in academy teams in brisbane, we pay fees of approx $1400 dollars per child and this only includes rego and playing kit. All training gear is additional including bags and tracksuit and polo. We have 3 sessions a week and coaching is great. We play for an NPL club but my kids are only in the academy Under 8s,9s,10s. Even at a non NPL club, the playing fee for a 6-7yr old was $400 which included rego and playing kit only( had to pay for socks). Whilst we are fortunate to be able to afford these fees at the moment, there are so many that are unable to and that reduces the quality of the games and this the kids who can afford to play are the ones that have the most chance of progressing. The FFA need to look at how other codes like rugby league run their junior development structure including all junior funding. This is a great sport but for it to grow across the country, we need more juniors which leads to increase revenue and more funding for coaching and developmental structures. Don’t need to be a genius to work that out.
Johnny Dalmas
Guest
Rather: in a "free market economy" a rational government wouldn't undermine private schools and health insurance by spending billions of "our taxes" running their own highly subsidised government programs. As a result taxes could be dramatically reduced and parents could freely chose to spend their money on schooling, health care or sports coaching.
Redondo
Guest
This is a really half-thought idea but... Currently the federations charge a flat registration fee. What if the federations instead charged a percentage of the club rego fee (say 10%), or the flat fee, whichever is greater. So if the club chooses to charge $400 and the federation flat fee is $80, then the player pays $80 because 10% is only $40. But if the club charges $2400 then the federation fee cut from that would be $240. The federations would then be recouping some of the 'profit' from high demand high fee clubs. The federations could then redistribute the profits in the form of coaching or ??? in low fee areas (presumably more disadvantaged or low demand).
Redondo
Guest
Northerner - I'm not saying it's not a problem. It is a problem for the US, in terms of equitable access to football, and, in terms of potential lost talent. But even if they are losing participants for economic reasons the US still has a huge player base - if they are not making use of it then there is a problem somewhere else e.g. with the coaching. Increasing the numbers of badly coached players is unlikely to help. Same here in Australia.
northerner
Guest
Redondo - the most fanatical football fans in the USA tend to be Hispanic - and Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority in the country, something like 20% of the total population. If Hispanic kids, who often come from disadvantaged backgrounds, can't afford the fees, then that's a problem because they're the ones most likely to be kicking around the ball in the streets all day, while the more privileged are doing drills on weekends.
R King
Guest
JB, isn't it straight forward, if there were better players here in the local NPL than the players brought in from OS don't you think that clubs would go and get them? Cheaper too. But the reality is this, the standard of players coming into the A League from OS is far higher than those playing in the NPL. Rolly, if you think that the old NSL was so good for player development you are deluding yourself. It was no better or no worse than the current A League. The big difference of course is the number of clubs playing at the highest level now. The NSL had no full time professional players, that I remember. Sure some were getting paid good money but not all.
j,binnie
Guest
Nemesis - To see ,or read, your reaction to these throwaway remarks is somewhat disappointing. As the HAL enters it's 13 th year in existence it stands to reason that many,if not all ,players presently playing will have participated in the HAL at some time or other. It is simple maths,Average player's age 25, age 13 years ago 12, so continued improvement from their junior days will see them "promoted" to the HAL. I think what disappoints the source of your commenter, is the fact that the national squad,in it's final make up ,is still populated by players from overseas clubs and ,if this is factual, it is indicative that the standard of the HAL has not yet reached the level of out national team. The continued practice by most HAL clubs in importing players from overseas to fill critical positions only adds to this perception which of course can be condensed into the type of statement you took umbrage at.. Cheers jb.
Rolly
Guest
Your in a capital city so you probably get better qualified ex NSL coaches we in regional NSW don't have the luxury of quality coaching we usually get parents coaching our kids so $2500 isn't really good value at this level .Sydney npl clubs usually have ex NSL highly qualified coaches for their junior teams.
Nemesis
Guest
"ALeague just isn’t producing the future socceroo" Utter nonsense. The following members of the current National Team either: a) started their professional career in ALeague; or b) resurrected their professional career in ALeague & then got picked for AUS Aziz Behich Alex Gersbach Craig Goodwin Jimmy Jeggo Tomi Jurić Robbie Kruse Mitch Langerak Matt Leckie Jamie MacLaren Mark Milligan Aaron Mooy Josh Risdon Tom Rogić Nikita Rukayvytsya Maty Ryan Trent Sainsbury James Troisi Danny Vuković
Rolly
Guest
Your in a capital city so you probably get better qualified ex NSL coaches we in regional NSW don't have the luxury of quality coaching we usually get parents coaching our kids so $2500 isn't really good value at this level .Sydney npl clubs usually have ex NSL highly qualified coaches for their junior teams.
Rolly
Guest
How can there be such a discrepancy my local NPL club charges $2500.00 for juniors your npl charges $650 ho can that be so.how does the statebody allow this.
Rolly
Guest
And so many more go through and filter into the socceroo squad in the good ole days .shows how good the NSL was for junior development.now whats going on in the game is embaressing.th ALeague just isn't producing the future socceroo
Footoverhand
Guest
FFA have a star rating for A League clubs, but as far as I know it doesn't extend any further. I think you have come up with a reasonable solution, that a club need to be assessed to this star system and charges/fee's must not exceed what is expected for the given star rating.
Footoverhand
Guest
Yep good post. Total fee's in Victoria are: U12's $20 12-18 Metro $86 12-18 Regional $34 So the federations fee's aren't to bad. One thing the federations could do is charge less for coaching courses and make them more accessible, so more kids can be trained by qualified coaches no matter how much they pay. As Iceland has shown, for such a small population, they do have a large proportion of top players! Arrigo Sacchi famously suggested elite coaching should be open to people from any walk of life, from elevator operators to stockbrokers. At the end of the last century the Icelandic FA put this into practice. Bolstered by the TV money pouring into every Uefa country, Iceland set up an open, hugely popular training scheme. Currently this nation of 335,000 has around 600 qualified coaches, 400 with Uefa B licences, or one per 825 people. To put this into context, in England this number falls to one per 11,000. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/08/iceland-stunning-rise-euro-2016-gylfi-sigurdsson-lars-lagerback?CMP=share_btn_tw
Footoverhand
Guest
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.footballfedvic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fee-ScheduleFinal.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwj1y7DShaTXAhWCoJQKHR3eAa4QFggtMAE&usg=AOvVaw0xqkqmnaC_e19C0nioSaxP This is what FFA and FFV charge in way of fee's in Victoria, I assume most states would be similar. Ask yourself why?
Footoverhand
Guest
First of all it's easy to access information and it's clear who is responsible for high fee's, a hint is it's not the federations. https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.footballfedvic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fee-ScheduleFinal.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwj1y7DShaTXAhWCoJQKHR3eAa4QFggtMAE&usg=AOvVaw0xqkqmnaC_e19C0nioSaxP That link is this year's fee structure for the FFA and FFV. 11 & under - FFA $0 FFV $20 Metro 12-18 - FFA $12.60. FFV $73.40 Regional 12-18 - FFA $12.60. FFV $21.40 Everything above those totals will go directly to the club, if you have concerns you should approach your club for a breakdown on where the fee's are being spent. Sure there are some clubs that pay their coaches, have rental or ground upkeep, uniforms and equipment, but some of the fee's you hear sound pretty high. This is where football falls short compared to the AFL in lobbying local government for grants, other than that I'm not sure what the solution is, the federations just don't have the money like the bigger sports to help clubs. The only thing they could do and should is make Coaching courses cheaper and more accessible, so kids will be more likely to get good coaches wherever they play.
Paul
Roar Rookie
Great post buddy the more I read your comments the more i want to deploy the proverbial broom. My thinking is all clubs should just return to their respective local association and let members of all ages and abilities enjoy their football. Their local football association should provide scouting or talent ID'ing then provide free training for the best players or as a centre of excellence. Footballing states bodies can provide the next level of football excellence or AIS-esque for HAL, WL. National teams from joeys/young matildas, olyroos to socceroos/matildas. Currently we have npl 1 2 3 and a state league or level 4 setup which benefits who? Not the emerging talents but those that can pay. This is factual. The talent is out there but it's not managed correctly.
Redondo
Guest
This article is kind of silly - middle-class white kids are just as likely to be good footballers as poor kids (which the article kind of infers are more likely black and latino). As Will points out the US already has a huge player pool. The problems probably lie somewhere other than with the relatively small pool of poor kids who would play but can't because of disadvantage.
Will
Guest
This is a huge factor everyone can miss, in football countries around the world they play year round and train with there clubs and also play unstructured football. Whilst here in Australia espeically in these SAP programs, they train twice a week and play for only 4-5 months of the year...and we want to compete with the world best? Well here lies an obvious problem. You dont get better at something when you only do it for half of the time, we just dont have year-round environment like they have around the world, then the kids go and play other sports in the summer and then we question why? well the answer is right in front of us! The questions we should asking how can we get there? Collaboration between the FFA, States and Associations to needed to have this structure set up.
Will
Guest
Well the USA has approximately around 24 million players all together and about 4 million of them are registered at club land, they are second behind Germany and ahead of the likes of Brazil, France, Italy and England! So i dont think they have a talent issue but more about its development system, which is about pay to play along there poor ID scouting systems they have in place, throw in the fact that they still dont encourage enough skill work and the problem becomes more clearer. There is a graph which has this data but i cant put on here for some reason...anyway they dont have a talent issue but others areas which hold them back. Like us they also have a huge moment coming up with the USSF presidency election, many within want change and others like Gulati want the status quo, something to keep an eye on.