Australia's young footballers are trapped in a broken system designed for failure

Sort of makes sense as you play on a smaller area, where as a player you naturally will get a touch a lot more often that in 11 a side. Maybe they can do short sided junior games until they are 13 years old or something. What just doesn't make sense to me is that we have fields to play everywhere in Oz, as well as a pretty warm climate. In Europe, I noticed kids in Milan playing on dirt pitches. In England it's a lot better, but the weather can rain a fair bit. Even France is not as good as down here. I suspect a lot of it is cultural that we cannot produce talent on a par with the traditional hotspots. Who knows in time we might find a system that works, but I just don't like these pay academies. As a father I won't touch it when other sports are practically handing you opportunities. And even if your young fella does get to Europe, have you seen the athletes playing even with a club of the calibre of a Fulham. They are all Olympic standards and usually from third world desperate backgrounds.

But not so different because a lot of futsal is based on playing the 'triangles', which is or should be the basis of the field game. I admit (showing my age here) that I was one of those who first saw Futsal as a 'different game' and not worthy, but the players I see coming to our VCFA club from Futsal backgrounds are many times more skilled than the ones without, and that's in an amateur league. Really all they need is fitness work and they become fantastic players. I'm actually seeing improvement in my own son, who at 18 has been playing field football for 11 years but the last 3 years playing futsal has improved him so much.

Nick -It has long been recognised that Iceland is a country that punches above it's weight in football. The fact that you have pointed out the number of coaches per head of population could well be the reason, and that thought brings me to one of my pet subjects- Coaching in Australia. We don't have to go back to 2008 to find the origins of our guide to what is accepted as the standard of coaching in Europe. That year is when we had a Dutch coach foist upon us a curriculum which had as it's basis work done at an educational center in England back around 1973,yes 35 years previously. The educational body I speak of is at Loughborough Sports College where students were given an investigative role into junior coaching, at all levels, of all sports. The football findings were based on not only physical requirements but also on the psychological levels of growing youngsters. It was from that investigation that the idea of playing small sides on small pitches, thus enabling a youngster to get more involved in the game as such, first made an appearance in coaching manuals. The years envisaged at that time was 6 -12 and the stress was put on the young players being involved in a "fun" atmosphere whilst enjoying the 2 main objectives of that age group, "getting a kick at the ball", or alternatively "scoring a goal". The year was 1974 and a man was lured to Australia, a participant in the Loughborough investigation, and he immediately put into place a plan to have qualified coaches in every state of Australia with an emphasis ,not on them coaching players, but rather coaching coaches. To aid and abet this he showed an inclination to use qualified school teachers into thetop positions so that they could go about their task, confident they were using the same methods in teaching and coaching. What happened to this man and his plan???? The powers that be had organised a cigarette company to meet his expenses and when cigarette advertising was banned by the government of the day this company withdrew their support and therefore the "moguls" in head office had to find alternative uses for this man and his ideas so he was given various National under age teams to look after and so he ,and his ideas. were left to "wither on the vine". We even had personalities in high places who branded this man ,and his hired coaches, the "Pommy Mafia", in fact ridiculing that necessity that a "coaching coach" had to speak the language and know how to teach adults. So we slipped on for another 35 tears with little or no advancement being made in our coaching system except for the AIS which again pointed out how far behind we were out in "clubland". There is little evidence that today's Curriculum, already re-written twice, is having the impact that was first envisaged way back in 1974 ,yes 48 years ago. jb

Interesting how people on here describe the system of private profit motivated 'academies'. If you think about it, it would be cheaper and better long term just to buy private golf club membership and you and the son can both do something together, until death.

In all due respects to futsal, but it is a different game. Why can't players learn skills the regular method? Is it because the kids these days don't spend enough time out in the parks playing? That's my suspicion. The streets were full of kids once upon a time, not anymore. But you do make a lot of sense, it doesn't surprise me at all. Makes me wonder if Australia and soccer are just not compatible.

FFA has lot to answer for as does Football NSW. The NSW skills acquisition program IS about money, depends where you live and how much the SAP will cost. My son was raised in the Shoalhaven (Southern Branch) the ONLY cost was re registration with Football NSW which was dumb as he was already registered through Shoalhaven, he played against teams in Sydney in the Youth League for 5 years, and represented NSW country at the nationals at 16. The SAP program deflects revenue from FOOTBALL NSW. Football in Australia will suffer and is suffering because of that money pyramid.

A very pleasing article, AA. Plus, very helpful information, Nick.

Id go watch a Roar futsal team.

Happens all the time, anyway by the time there kids are 16/17 there more interested in girl and going out having fun instead of being institutionalised at a football club.

Based on my exp with NPL (WA), clubs are focus primarily on the short-term results, (i.e. season by season) with very little consideration to player development, many offer training programs as a means to generate additional income where they may uncover some new talent, however, players develop at different rates and motivational levels, so too often good players are discarded for those that have developed earlier. My son has trained/trialled twice in Europe and was successful in being selected in late 2019 for a Serie A team Academy program U14/15 level, however, Cv19 intervened and has been struck in Australia, the irony is he not considered good enough to play for the stronger clubs in town, and every club has a different reason why is not good enough. Private academies are good provided the coaching staff have the players development as their core focus have link to overseas clubs and it’s not just a job for them. Coaches should be looking at what the young players potential looks like i.e. the finished product at U18/19s because by then all the hard work and training will come to the surface, to discard a player at U15/16 when the player still has 3 – 4 years development ahead of them a lot can happen both physically and mentally. European clubs look at what the players potential is given the right training environment ( i.e. long term approach) as they can afford that luxury to sit on a player for 2/3 years to see what happens they are not results driven until at least U18 and attitude is key….the behaviour of a lot of player at NPL level in this country is terrible, combative and looking for fights as opposed to playing good football and unfortunately this stems from poor family influences in an attempt to stand out which unfortunately is setting the player up for failure. Like most things in life, you have to take charge of your own destiny and not get locked into a system that places winning/results over development. The proof is in the pudding, what has the national team done of note in the last 20 years on the international stage, while every year dozens of players, potentially all better than national reps turn their back on Aust to play for overseas club and other national teams.

In NSW you must have a 'B' license (minimum) to coach any NPL senior team. For junior teams it varies across having a B and a C license. Eventually I can see all NPL clubs having to have their coaches accredited with a B license. It will take a few years as these licenses are a lot of work (B & A especially) but at least they are heading in that direction.

ICELANDIC COACHING: In Iceland, if you want to be a football coach then you must have a coach education, even at grassroots level. Around 70% of all coaches have completed the UEFA B license, and 30% have completed the A license. Clubs in the top two domestic leagues get fined by the Icelandic FA if their coaches don’t keep up with the education requirements. - There are currently around 180 UEFA A-qualified coaches and 590 B-qualified coaches in the country – so a UEFA qualified coach per 500 people. England, by comparison, has one per 10,000. - WORKING WITH WHAT YOU HAVE It is a way of thinking that can be traced through most facets of Iceland’s football landscape: Only a handful of players available? Make do and develop them anyway. Non-profit-making coach education? Work with it and invest in them. Non-professional domestic competition? Work with it, and support people’s careers outside the sport. Short league season due to climate? Work with it, and invest in all-weather pitches. Have to practice on gravel pitches? Work with it (and win the league, as was the case with KR in 2003). Coaches often split time working in physical education? Make the best of their educational abilities. - https://playerdevelopmentproject.com/icelands-small-mindset/

Thanks Andy. Sounds like it's all a bit of a muddle. Have heard occasional noises from disgruntled parents.