SOCCEROO Tim Cahill has sounded a warning about the future of Australian football due to the changing pathways for young players seeking to make it abroad.

Cahill, who has just finished his first season in the A-League after having played overseas for nearly 20 years, was speaking on The Back Page Live on Tuesday night.

“I’m really concerned (about the future) because when we went to the Asian group it was amazing because everyone thought we’ll qualify through Asia,” Cahill said.

“So when we were growing up, me, (Mark) Bresciano, Vinny Grella, (Mark) Viduka, we had no choice but to go to England when we were 16, fight hard to play second division, first division or go straight to those teams.

Tim Cahill acknowledges the fans after Melbourne City’s season came to an end. Source: Getty Images

“Now players don’t have to go and fight, they can go straight to Dubai, China and pay their mortgages off much earlier. When I went to China I was 35 years old, my career was over.”

Cahill meant the peak of his career was behind him but he’s still forging on at 37 bidding to reach another World Cup.

However, the Socceroos are in real danger of missing out on qualifying for the 2018 tournament in Russia, sitting in third place in Group B of Asian qualifying with only the top two automatically going through and the third-place team being forced to take part in a playoff.

“I think definitely it’s one of my toughest because this is my fourth World Cup qualifying campaign in my career and you have to look at where the players are playing right now,” he said.

“At a time when I was playing (at my peak), we were all in Europe, we were playing in the biggest leagues in the world. Right now, a lot of our players are not playing at the highest level.

“I din’t think we have many Premier League players, you have to look at that. I think for me, Ange (Postecoglou) is a pioneer of the game and what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to take us to a World Cup and not just be passengers.

“So right now it’s a difficult stage because we’re certainly not odds on to qualify — we have to go and earn it. Every time we talk about the Socceroos and even the A-League, for me it’s just business. I have no emotions. It’s about winning.

Tim Cahill of the Socceroos. Source: News Corp Australia

“I suppose when you’ve been to three World Cups before, that’s all they know. So what you want to do is make sure you’ve got that repetition of success and you need then to develop on what you’re going to do next with the Asian Championships.

“So you need to carry on the expectations. That’s what professionals, the pressure what we have, and how we have to deal with that.

“So we play Saudi Arabia, then we’ve got Brazil, then we’ve got Confederations Cup and we’ve got more qualifiers — and it we don’t qualify then we affect the game that we love in Australia.”

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