The worrying state of Australian football

Four years, 22 qualifiers, all for three World Cup group matches resulting in one point and a fourth-place group finish, a nice term for last.

It’s sad, isn’t it? It’s been eight years since we’ve won a game on the greatest stage of all. Eight years! 12 years since we’ve qualified for the round of 16. These solemn facts speak the depressing truth, when it comes to the World Cup, Australia doesn’t succeed.

The performances of the Socceroos may have been described as ‘brave’, ‘valiant’ or ‘as putting up a good fight’ but this is simply not good enough or worth anything.

We need to stop congratulating the Socceroos on participation and effort like an under 8s coach would. We shouldn’t accept patronising comments from the opposition as achievements, we should really take them as ‘Australia is weak, we don’t have to bother playing mind games.’ This is humiliating disrespect.

Our football culture must change; we need to expect results and we need to demand respect. We need to be feared, not be the easy three points. In all facets at this World Cup we have failed, just like the two tournaments prior.

The most depressing part of this story is that we haven’t improved since the 2006 World Cup. Now the ‘golden generation’ were dubbed ‘golden’ for a reason but we must strive to improve and better them. It’s tiring watching highlights from ’06 over and over again waiting for the next chapter in a journey that never arrives.

Against Peru, Tim Cahill caused more chaos than we had all tournament in his limited time on the pitch. It’s sad that we haven’t produced a quality goal scorer in 12 years to take over his reign.

It’s sad that a nation (well the mainstream media) relies on a 38-year-old who played 65 minutes in 14 games in England’s second tier. It’s sad that sports journalists that think Cahill should start and that Van Marwijk is insane for not doing so, are published on back pages all around the country.

The way football is presented to the masses must change too, it won’t change our performance, but it will give the public a richer understanding of the game and the stakes it is played at.

Tim Cahill (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

I believe the FFA must take some responsibility for the failure at this tournament and the failure to produce players. The system is broken and almost every footballer in Australia recognises this.

There was a Facebook post going around at the start of the tournament that stated if Kylian Mbappe was Australian he would be dropped to NPL u/20s, because he’s too young and there’s someone who’s been at his club for five years longer.

Food for thought. It might seem funny but it’s true, Tim Cahill left Australia when he was 16 because he was told he was too small to make it, and not much has changed since.

A prime example of the FFA’s ludicrous nature comes from the u/14 state titles last season that my brother played at.

These titles double up as trials for the NSW Metro and NSW Country sides which seemed reasonable. What was odd with this is that players weren’t picked on performance alone, they also had to fit the criteria of playing NPL one or two even if they were vying for country positions.

The NSW Country side selected a field player in goals because none of the country goalkeepers at the tournament played for an NPL side. Ridiculous.

I’m sure it wasn’t just goalkeepers that were snubbed, but quality out field players too. There’s every possibility that the next Harry Kewell travelled back to his country town without the chance to progress because he couldn’t feasibly play for an NPL side, the closest club being potentially five or six hours away.

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Besides travel, playing NPL is not cheap, registration fees are in excess of $1000 at many clubs. ‘High Level’ clubs forcing players to pay that much that they want for their ‘talents’ would be unheard of anywhere else in the world.

We are never going to improve as a footballing nation if in order to become a professional player you must live in close proximity to an urban area and be financially able to afford to play at the required level.

It seems to me the FFA is greedy, forcing players to play NPL in order to make it, through paying big bucks for the federations economic benefit. They disregard the game and do not care about our national team’s results beyond the money their appearances at big tournaments makes them.

Our game in Australia will end up in the shambles if something is not done soon. We must follow the vision of Johnny Warren and Les Murray and stand up against the FFA’s degradation of the beautiful game.

It starts with the Socceroos and the grass roots. It’s upsetting that we are at the World Cup no more, but this is an opportunity to realise what is going wrong and change it.

Here’s to Australian football.