A WEEK after the Olyroos crashed out of the Olympics, it’s nice to hear some positive news about the future of Australian football.

Finally the A-League clubs are scrambling to make up for lost time by building their own academies, aiming to attract, coach and develop the next generations of elite players on their own doorstep.

At Allianz Stadium tonight a bunch of teams will be unveiled at halftime when Sydney FC face Brisbane – a hugely symbolic collection of young players, who now make up the Sky Blues’ own academy.

What Sydney chairman Scott Barlow calls “the most important strategic initiative we have embarked on since our inception”, the academy has been running for months though it will be officially launched tonight.

The kids are certainly dedicated, with six age teams from U13s through to U20s training four nights a week at Football NSW’s Valentine Park, under the experienced leadership of former FFA technical manager Kelly Cross.

It may have taken a decade to come about, but the unofficial feedback from parents is very positive.

Those who follow Graham Arnold as coach of the senior team should be grateful recipients of what it produces.

“For all the A-League clubs, the academies have been the missing link,” said Barlow. “For two years we have been planning this, to have six teams feeding into our youth team and the A-League squad.

media_camera Sydney FC are set to unveil a landmark academy. pic Mark Evans

It’s fantastic to see the quality of football they are producing, and the goal is investing in producing the players of tomorrow.”

Barlow can’t put a figure in cash terms on the investment involved, but he notes that with an extra 100 players and coaches, the number of people employed by and playing for the club has doubled.

“We’ve done a lot of work to ensure we have the right structures, coaches and facilities,” Barlow said.

“We want young players to learn the Sydney FC way of playing football.”

The use of Parklea has proved contentious, sited just a few kilometres from the Wanderers’ home base and given that Sydney FC is usually seen as occupying a space from the northern beaches south down to Sutherland.

An academy base in that constituency would have offered a geographic point of difference to Western Sydney’s academy, but Barlow said the quality of infrastructure at the newly rebuilt Valentine Park had been the clinching factor.

“We did look at a lot of sites, but we couldn’t get away from the quality of what’s available at Valentine Park,” he said. “We see that as our academy home in the medium term, and possibly the long term, and we see Sydney FC as a club for the whole of Sydney.

“Our goal is to produce the best junior academy in the country, and produce Sydney FC stars for the future. The junior teams will be the heart and soul of our club moving forward.”