Conside these matters:
- Why are charges at Junior Clubs increasing and when do we acknowledge that $150 - $180 per season per child is just too much to pay to play the game?
- If the FFA wants to "develop the game" then it really has to minimise the particpation cost impact on familes at the grass roots level.
- Does our current Premier League structure assist Junior Clubs develop players?
- Why should financial charges be made to parents in order for their children to particpate in the Capital Football High Performance Program?
- If the FFA is as serious as they say they are about the development of junior football (where else do senior players come from to play for Australia?) then why don't they underwrite the cost of the HPP in each State and Territory?
- Are we losing players from the game at a young age to others sprots or no sport at all because the cost of playing descriminates against those families without disposable income to pay?
- Why should it cost a junior player a cent to play for an ACT representative team?
- Same again for Futsal?
22 Apr 2010
Recently I was reminiscing with a mate about the Brisbane club we both played for.
He is still at the club and as he was telling me how it was going, he mentioned that some of the players in the lower tiers of Brisbane football are getting paid.
I was shocked. Not only that players at this level are being paid but by some of the amounts, which are beyond belief. I felt sick.
By whatever means these clubs are getting the money, the last area it should be invested in is securing the club a few meaningless minor titles.
These are community clubs that exist to give the population a place to play football, to have fun and to socialise. Not to win trophies.
Give junior footballers a break 63Comments
22 Apr 2010
Recently I was reminiscing with a mate about the Brisbane club we both played for.
He is still at the club and as he was telling me how it was going, he mentioned that some of the players in the lower tiers of Brisbane football are getting paid.
I was shocked. Not only that players at this level are being paid but by some of the amounts, which are beyond belief. I felt sick.
By whatever means these clubs are getting the money, the last area it should be invested in is securing the club a few meaningless minor titles.
These are community clubs that exist to give the population a place to play football, to have fun and to socialise. Not to win trophies.
At the junior level clubs exist to help develop young talent by being football educators and their success should be measured by the number of Socceroos they produce, not how much irrelevant silverware is in a cabinet most people will never lay eyes on.
Sydney United never won a national title, but it is remembered as being one of the greatest clubs in Australian football. Why?
For the football it played and the amount of quality players it produced. This is what every lower level club in the country should be striving for.
If clubs have money to spend it should be going to upgrading facilities, fixing pitches and hiring well-educated youth coaches.
Players at this level of senior football should be playing for the love of the game, not to earn an extra dollar or two.
So how are lower tier clubs coming across this money? It is not from gate receipts or television rights.
There would be some from sponsorship, but then it hit me, youth player registrations!
I’ve heard of clubs charging hundreds of dollars for kids to play, some even in the thousands. If the money-raised from these registrations is being spent to benefit the senior side it as an utter disgrace.
When I first started playing football my parents couldn’t believe they had to fork out money.
“In Portugal they pay you to play, here you pay to play”, they said.
While I understand junior fees are necessary, I think the amounts are excessive. To not invest this money back in to the grassroots of the game is a recipe for disaster.
Football is currently the number one junior sport in Australia but if fees continue to spiral out of control and are not re-invested in to better coaching and facilities, the beautiful game could fall behind a cashed up AFL, or other sports that offer cheaper options.
These sports can see the potential football has and will do everything in their power to stop it.
AFL even offers its elite young players a salary. If a promising young footballer is forced to choose between paying or being paid the winner is obvious.
It begs the question; would Diego Maradona or Pele, who came for extremely poor families, have made it as footballers in Australia? There is certainly no way they could have afforded the registration fees.
My colleague Francis Awaritefe mentioned that the A-League should be professional, the State Leagues semi-professional and under that it should all be amateur. I completely agree.
There is barely enough money in the game to have one professional competition.
If this is implemented perhaps one day every young footballer in Australia can play for free.
After all, playing football is a right not a privilege.