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Opinion
There is much debate about the cost of playing football in Australia. In fact, principle IX in Football Australia’s XI Principles for the Future of Australian Football identified reducing the cost of playing football as a key target.
The debate around cost is low-hanging fruit. It’s an easy target for someone to jump on their high horse and talk about how they have the solution to Australia’s footballing problems.
There is no doubt cost is an issue, but reducing it isn’t a practical or viable option any time soon, especially when the demand for junior football is so high.
The NPL system – FA’s approved elite pathway – is the easiest target of them all. It’s a much-maligned system. To be fair, it is far from perfect, but some of the criticism of it is unwarranted when looking at it in perspective.
Using averages and ballpark figures, NPL clubs charge around $2500 per year on average for kids to play. Some are more while others are less.
The average number of training sessions is three per week, for one and a half hours per session, with most clubs training for around 40 weeks a year. The number of games for juniors depends on the state, with a range of around 25-33 NPL junior games per season.
So the number of hours kids play and train is around 225 hours, again a ballpark figure. So if we take $2500 and divide by 225, it’s around $11 per hour. This is tremendous value to play any sport let alone at an elite level.
While there is an argument that NPL football isn’t as ‘elite’ as it is supposed to be, in general the quality of training sessions and the standard of games is higher than community-level football.
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So while $2500 is expensive, it is decent value when looking at it from a different, and perhaps fairer, angle. For the record, these costs cover club licensing fees, coaches wages, coaches training courses, referee fees, ground hire, equipment, uniforms, utilities and other overhead costs.
Now, the reality is the cost of junior football for some parents goes well beyond this. That comes down to choice.
Junior football is a huge business. There is plenty of demand and supply out there. Parents are often willing to pay big bucks to anyone and everyone to give their kids that cutting edge. And fair enough too.
As a result, plenty are cashing in. This includes A-League clubs, private academies and private coaches.
Firstly let’s talk about A-League clubs.
Sydney FC, for example, have an academy training program, where for $1500, kids can get 40 weeks (80 hours) of training, under the noses of Sydney FC scouts. This works out to be $18.75 per hour.
Melbourne Victory have a pre-academy which costs about $1000 a year. It is similar to Sydney FC’s program and works out to be about 80 hours in total, which is $12.50 per hour.
These pre-academies are not necessarily elite. Generally if a parent is willing to pay, kids get in.
To be fair, these sessions are high quality and give kids the chance to perform in front of club scouts, which naturally increases their chance of making the club’s proper academy teams. There is no guarantee of course.
There are some programs run by A-League clubs that are merit-based. Kids have to trial and are chosen if they are deemed good enough. Some of these are free (e.g. Western Sydney Wanderers’ Future Wander Women Program) while some are not (e.g. Melbourne Victory’s Elite Girls Program is $1000 per year).
Private academies are a different kettle of fish altogether. There are a number of these bobbing up every year around the country.
The quality and standard of coaching and sessions varies between each one. The cost works out to be $20-30 per hour. This may work out to be $1000-1500 per season.
Private coaching again takes things to a whole new level. There are a number that exist where kids can get more one-on-one time or small group sessions. The cost of these varies but there are some out there for up to $100 an hour, or even more for the really top-notch coaches. This can end up being an additional $2000-3000 per year.
While not all kids and parents will take up every program there is – in fact the vast majority probably don’t – the reality is the demand for them is what is driving the cost of playing football up. Simple economics.
This means we find that kids, well, parents, who go beyond FA’s elite pathway are forking out up to $4000-5000 a year to play football, with the hope of one day making it professionally. When we add boots, petrol costs, insurance, medical bills, specialised camps etc, this becomes even bigger.
The reality is 99 per cent of junior footballers won’t ever get to the professional level. And in 100 years of the Socceroos, only 616 junior boy footballers went on to represent their country. In 43 years of the Matildas, only 220 junior girl footballers played for Australia.
At the end of the day, the cost of playing football is huge. But there is little that can be done about it when people are willing to pay so much.
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