The academy system is a major case in point. Parents are encouraged to pay exorbitant fees for a service that is, very often, big on sales and blather and shockingly short on quality, expertise and ethics. Academies are attached to clubs, which become their de facto development in lieu of actually putting a proper structure in place themselves. Often, they are financially in league with each other. Every child is encouraged, sometimes forced, to pay for additional sessions that are not provided within the club environment, and everyone wins commercially, except the two parties that matter the most - the child and the parent. Everyone is trying to fleece the game, and the effects are clear to see. We have a zillion academies, so called, which have been proliferating for over a decade now and yet here is my question: where are the players? Where are the young talents that are being properly educated and receiving great value for what they are paying? I don't see them. Not only this, I coach many that have been spending fortunes in academies for years, and they all have simple faults that should have been fixed from the very beginning.

Coaching children is not a case of throwing out some cones, letting them play and collecting the moolah. It is a highly complex profession that requires significant education, understanding, professionalism and sensitivity. At some point, we have to say, enough is enough. We must break the cycle, which is becoming more and more vicious; this entrenched culture of making money from giving children a chance to play football. There has been talk for years that FFA would license this chaotic and unregulated system of academies, yet nothing has been done. They still populate every blade of grass, and are charging whatever their market will bear, and whoever they can convince. One of the problems with this user-pays system is that honest assessments of the children are rarely made, because there's always another academy around the corner willing to tell the parents their child is a star, so everyone keeps the charade moving along.

''Your son can make it overseas'' is the cry, and the imperative is to push them abroad early to control them commercially, a rich payday the goal, another career ruined. This is not a de facto education system, it's a money factory. If this was a school environment, we would be last in academic standards in the world and, by extension, we are producing illiterate footballers through high charges and zero regulation. Two things are needed. A re-engineering of the club system to ensure every child has access to quality training throughout the year at minimal cost, as happens everywhere else in the developed world. We also need accreditation and control of the academy system - to protect parents from the charlatans selling dreams at high prices, and to enable the quality coaches to differentiate themselves. As participation grows, this should not be a license to prey on the game's grassroots and fill the pockets while teaching kids nothing of value. It's a chance to serve the game by volunteering, coaching within the club environment, and ensuring that every child has the chance to excel.

That's what has been lost from our sporting culture, because three decades ago there wasn't the immediate thought of profiting from a child's desire to play sport. Today, it's the norm. As an ex-player, my policy is to never charge for any appearance at a club, a charity, or federation, including FFA, because my responsibility is to support a lower cost to play football, not to contribute to elevating it. Children these days can hardly pick up a ball without being charged an arm and a leg, and we cannot succeed internationally if playing football means thousands of dollars a year for training that is usually poor and should be provided within clubs. Make no mistake, if we don't make a stand against profiteering in football now, we will all pay the price.