Tiers: Young Luke Casserly challenges for the ball when playing for Northern Spirit. Credit:Tim Clayton They will be split into two 14-team conferences divided as either east and west or north and south. The move is to limit travel times of kids and parents, provide players in each district access to high-level football, improve the bottom standard of the existing top tiers and banish the negative tactics associated with promotion and relegation pressures of young ages. "When an under 12s team is winning 1-0, they're often instructed by their coaches not to take any chances, not to play out the back. Within the NPL in NSW the need for young players to win because of relegation and promotion sees that we're not getting a real adoption to the national curriculum and coaches aren't being instructed by clubs to play football in the way we want and the way our national curriculum sets out to play," Casserly said. The proposal has been praised by several coaches in youth development who believe young players need to focus on performance not results while Football NSW chief executive Eddie Moore is not concerned with the potential of lopsided results in a proposed mixed competition. "The gap between clubs that are NPL 1 or NPL 2 doesn't automatically mean that it's of a varied standard. The bottom line is that Sydney and NSW is too big to not have kids excel in their own backyards," Moore said.

However, the overwhelming majority of NPL 1 clubs feel aggrieved having invested heavily in youth development and senior elite performances especially given their limited earnings opportunities. APIA Leichhardt president and vice-chairman of the NPL 1 standing committee, Tony Raciti, fears the proposed model could lead to the clubs reducing funding for youth teams because they no longer fear relegation. "We're of a strong belief like everywhere else in the world that it has to be the best playing against the best, that's the simple reality," Raciti said. "The Premier League clubs will stop investing in coaches, training facilities because there is nothing at stake and it will merely become a grass roots competition." It's been mooted that some current NPL 1 clubs could shift resources to private academies instead of youth teams should the FFA's proposed flatline system of the two leagues be introduced. There are also fears of lopsided performances and results in the short to medium term that could jeopardise player development. In recent inter-tier friendly games in youth games, scorelines of 17-0 and 15-2 were noted and could become common in competitive fixtures. Former Socceroo, Mark Bosnich supports some stages of the model but is fearful of the lack of pressure young players learn to deal with. Before moving to Manchester United as a teenager, Bosnich cites the pressures of promotion, relegation and finals series as preparation for the jump to the English Premier League.

"My biggest fear is that you're going to have some teams that beat others by six-nil or more which is no good for anyone," he said. "[The flatline system for] Under 12s OK, under 13s at a push but from the age of 14 onwards, there should be times in a year when there is pressure on the boys to perform at a senior level, whether that is promotion or relegation or a finals series. "These clubs are stakeholders in the games and have been for a very long time. They've jumped through hoops under the old Han Berger regime and it seems they've been told what's happening rather than being given the chance to discuss."