Image: Football Federation Victoria

“You have to want to climb Everest to get there … If we don’t say it, if we don’t put it out there, it’s never going to come to us, the football world is too competitive … If we don’t have that ambition [to win the World Cup], it isn’t going to happen.” – Ange Postecoglou, Fox Sports Shootout, 2016

Ever since the FFA released in the National Curriculum, there has been strong debate about what exactly is required to produce players who can win the World Cup and make Australia the best footballing nation on the planet.

The modern era is characterised by fervent, round-the-clock clickbait media where, just three months ago, if you paid the round ball hysteria monster and its restless band of social media commentators any attention, both Antonio Conte of Chelsea and our own Kevin Muscat of Melbourne Victory were on the brink of sacking, and Pep Guardiola was heaven’s gift to England. This, coupled with a culture of instant gratification, has seen the virtue of patience slowly slip away from not only football, but most aspects of life.

The circus has been especially noticeable in the last few years whenever one of our youth national teams has failed to produce results and either missed qualification or been knocked out of a tournament early. Those failures almost always produce voracious opposition to the FFA National Curriculum and its detractors are quick to pinpoint it as the main reason for our lack of quality at that level. However, as Les Murray rightfully highlighted after last year’s qualifying campaign in Asia:

“The players who took part in the failed qualifying bid are simply too old to have been caught in the net of the new curriculum. The NFC, under the authorship and guidance of then national technical director Han Berger, was first launched in 2009 as primarily a blueprint, philosophical document that was short on detailed explanation and practical examples. The curriculum was re-launched as a comprehensive document and practical guide in 2012 and it was then that the work in earnest to put right what had been wrong with our player development was meant to kick in. The scheme, based on examples of success in other countries like Spain, France, Germany and Holland, was governed by the principle that the development of a quality footballer takes at the minimum between eight and ten years. It was designed to have kids enter it at around the age of 10. So it’s not rocket science. The kids that first entered the system under the new curriculum will be turning 14 this year. The players in the Doha qualifying tournament were in the majority in the 20-22 age group and were never touched by the curriculum. They are simply too old.”

With that clarification in mind, allowing the National Curriculum’s principles to take their course becomes a matter of patience and togetherness. It’s important not to abandon the boat every time the water gets a little choppy. At the same time, we should also note the contribution of coaches like Ron Smith and Steve O’Connor at the Australian Institute of Sport before the changes took place and not completely discard the years of knowledge and practice that such people can provide.

Youth Development Targets

Traditionally, the majority of Australia’s elite players have been developed by clubs, often with volunteers in the background providing the support. A large handful of players have also been developed at the elite FFA Centre of Excellence (formerly AIS). It is important to maintain the advancements made by the National Curriculum, utilising the knowledge and experience of coaches and clubs of the past and merging those together with the necessary future steps to be taken according to the FFA Whole of Football Plan. As a football community, we should be aiming to:

1. Increase the total number of players in our talented player pathways 2. Increase the amount of football hours in a quality coaching environment

3. Utilise school sporting systems and scholarships

4. Create a centralised national talented player database

5. Have a clear pathway in each state

6. Deliver high quality programs in each state

7. Implement a club academy accreditation system

8. Broaden and strengthen our skill acquisition programs

9. Increase the amount of unstructured football hours, outside of programs

10. Aim to win the World Cup and encourage attitudes and behaviors targeting that goal

What are the next steps?

The FFA’s Whole of Football plan outlines ways to address many of the points listed above. The steps are listed below with additional thoughts added to generate further discussion.

“Given that Australia is a prosperous, ﬁrst-world nation, no Australian youth player should have to go overseas to receive world class development. We need to provide an environment that reassures every Australian player that they can be the best they can be by staying in Australia.

We have created a “Starting 11 of guiding principles” that Football needs to deliver to ensure Australia can compete with the world’s best:

Starting XI – Guiding Principles for Player Development

1) Introductory football courses will focus on kids having FUN!

Before kids can play like a pro, they must enjoy playing the game like a kid. Elite football should not start until children are aged 12 or of a similar maturity. Kids will always keep their own score but this should not be emphasized by the adults running the game. Rest assured that the removal of competition ladders and scores will not remove the competitive element. If you think back to your own days of playing on the street, can you remember any results or ladders? You always knew the score on the day but, importantly, the next day it was almost always forgotten because there was a new game to play.

2) No talent selection, but instead talent identiﬁcation:

At a young age players should be selected on their potential, not just because they are bigger, faster or stronger. It is important to identify potential talent and keep track of it. Development is not a straight line or a perfectly chronological process. It is important to keep the potential pool of talented players as wide as possible rather than selecting elite squads of limited numbers and narrowing our player base.

3) Every youth player in every youth team needs an educated coach:

An educated coach is one who has been educated in the necessary behaviours and the National Curriculum to train aspiring players. NPL clubs and many community clubs have already been taking the necessary steps to ensure that this is possible. It is important that coaches of talented players are trained to coach. That is, to deliver knowledge to young players and the ability to transfer their own knowledge while maintaining perspective on the big picture rather than the weekly result. This does not necessarily mean that the coach had to have played at a high level and there are many fantastic young coaches being developed, educated and trained, but it is important that the coach is still able to demonstrate if and when required.

4) Every youth player will have access to top quality facilities:

Whether it is on grass pitches, school pitches, futsal courts or synthetic pitches, youth players need to play football regularly on top quality surfaces. Again, many clubs are already taking steps in the right direction but it is important to build relationships with council to ensure that our best players are playing on good grounds. This will not only reduce the risk of injury but will contribute to a better brand of football across the board. Facilities also include gym and medical equipment and anything else identified to assist in holistic development.

5) The pathway needs an individual approach for every player:

Football needs to be ﬂexible to the individual needs and circumstances of every player in the pathway. This includes the hiring of specialists. As Evan Christodoulou recently explained: “Why expect a coach to understand complex brain development mastery, proprioception, motor learning deficiencies, gait pattern corrections, posture deficiencies, or weak musculature for example? I am not here to have a dig at our coaches, but rather highlight the fact they cannot possibly teach young players these complex training techniques if they do not have the necessary qualifications and expertise to do so. Overseas, we have university qualified specialists who either are employed\volunteer at academies\clubs to develop, identify, and implement these systems, and have direct input into educating coaches, training schedule programming and systematic player analysis.”

6) A network of scouts will record players into one centralised talent ID system:

Football needs knowledgeable, certiﬁed scouts who focus on talent identiﬁcation. The sole purpose of these scouts is to identify potential talent and add it to our database rather than selecting talent to compete in a team. The latter can lend itself to favouring mature players who are developed earlier and will help the team to win, as opposed to young players who have greater potential but are not currently developed enough to influence immediate results.

7) Quality talent development is not about results in youth matches:

Developing skillful players with a winning mentality does not mean abandoning the ‘Australian way’ (according to the National Curriculum) so as to come ﬁrst on the under-13 competition ladder. While winning titles is a fantastic memory and winning games can improve confidence, a winning mentality is not born of winning in and of itself. A winning mentality is the ability to persevere under pressure or difficult times and eventually (when it actually counts, such as performance football) come through with the desired result or execution. Winning must always be an aim but never at the expense of developing better footballers.

8) FFA development programs will be decentralised to increase the number of players in the pathway:

FFA development programs, which means those administered directly by the FFA or via Member Federations, must go to the players rather than expecting players to come to a central location. This is already underway with Talent Development Centers being introduced over the last year. As seen in countries such as Germany and Belgium, these development centers will not be based on streamlined systems which created elite players in elite teams like the current NTC system, but will be scattered around each state to broaden opportunities and provide top quality training to as many players as possible alongside their club training. This ensures that players are not removed from their club environment but identified players will still be given the opportunity to train with other identified players and receive additional guidance, refinement and coaching.

9) Australia needs a minimum of 500 elite youth players at every age level:

This will result in Australia having a combined pool of 3,000 boys and girls from aged 12 to 19 in an elite environment and will provide a prodigious pipeline of talent for top tier clubs and national teams. Australia currently has 24 players at the FFA Centre of Excellence (formerly AIS) that enjoy a similar environment. Meanwhile, Germany has approximately 5,000 and Belgium, with an overall playing population smaller than our own has 2,000 youth players nurtured in this environment.

10) Top elite youth players will not be excluded from the pathway for ﬁnancial reasons:

Cost barriers must be signiﬁcantly reduced and a school competition will provide a platform for any talented Australian to be identiﬁed. In 2017, the talented player pathway is still highly exclusive and many players in elite junior clubs and programs have to pay well over $2,000 per year for their development. This is a highly complex issue and many factors are at play. Until a strong solution is found, it is important that clubs utilize networking opportunities such as the fantastic Community in Business program in Victoria which can help to generate prosperous partnerships that can help clubs to sustain their operations and minimize player fees.

11) Elite youth players need to receive a training environment comparable to our rival countries:

Elite Youth Players will be any children playing in a (proposed) Tier One club academy or part of a club academy and a National Development Centre. Overseas elite youth players experience a development environment that Australian clubs have struggled to match. In countries like Japan, Belgium and Germany elite youth players train seven times per week and are nurtured by accredited coaches over a 40-week season.

Proposed updated development pathways for talented boys and girls (FFA Whole of Football Plan):

The FFA have outlined and are taking the necessary steps. The newly created technical committee has already attempted to bridge the gap to the knowledge of the past with the inclusion of former AIS Head Coach Ron Smith. Most importantly, it is important to trust in the process and display patience. Any meaningful development takes time but with the support and togetherness of the football community this will see an improved level of players feeding into NPL, National Youth League, A-League, W-League and national teams. Players who not only reach those levels but when they do, are some of the world’s best, capable of making an impact on a global scale.

Originally published on rmarchioli.wordpress.com.