The Roadmap

Australia’s armchair ride in Oceania is over. Gone are the days of thumping American Samoa 31-0.

With our new found participation in Asia comes not only a more even playing field but also enormous costs in trying to qualify the full spectrum of our national teams in the region.

The Olyroos and Matildas have soaked up much of the current cycle of funding in the run to next year’s Beijing games, which has impacted on our other elite programs.

Mark Viduka, Lucas Neill, Mark Bresciano, Vince Grella and Brett Emerton came out of the AIS program in Canberra, all lofty standard bearers for a development phase that shaped our successful run to last year's World Cup in Germany.

The next generation of AIS graduates is headed by current Socceroo Carl Valeri and includes the younger exciting crop of Kaz Patafta, Nathan Burns, Dario Vidosic and Matthew Spiranovic.

Of the current crop, promising goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne has just been signed by A-League side Central Coast Mariners, Matthew Mullen by Adelaide United, while Young Socceroos captain Sebastian Ryall is in his second U-20 World Cup qualification phase.

Much has been written about the crucial years of development for Australia’s elite footballers but the cost of qualifying the Olyroos and Matildas for the Beijing Games is not exactly helping the special needs of other crucial junior programs - Young Socceroos (U-20s), Joeys (U-17s), Young Matildas (U-20's) and women's U-17s.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) run a total of nine national teams, the Socceroos, Olyroos, Young Socceroos, Joeys, Matildas, Young Matildas, Women’s U-17s, Futsal and Paralympic.

The cost to the FFA is $2million per year in camps and competitions.

The two-year qualification cycle for the Olyroos and Matildas has cost the FFA approximately $2.5million, which has placed a significant financial strain on the funding of other programs.

"We have an obligation to the sport, FIFA and the AFC to fund and resource all teams however it’s a struggle to do it especially during an Olympic qualification phase where matches are played on a home and away basis, 14 for the men and nine for the women," FFA’s Head of High Performance John Boultbee explained.

"As a new chum in Asia we are only just getting used to the new environment, and are not part of the top decision making process."

"In due course I think we would like to submit to AFC that the Olympic qualification be by way of a tournament rather than home and away - for financial reasons - both for us and our fellow Asian countries, who also probably have to watch their finances carefully."

Players Association Chief Executive, Brendan Schwab wants more money to be spent to give Australia's national team's all the support they require.

"In respect to the political and cultural benefits Australia enjoys from being in the Asian Football Confederation there’s a strong argument for government to more strongly fund football across all elite national teams," Schwab declared.

Football in Australia runs the risk of spreading it’s financial cover so thin, that trying to qualify every junior tier could see results go out the window.

Leading football countries such as France have by-passed the U-17 World Cups in preference to technical development of that age group at home.

"What France or other European countries do is more realistic because they’ll say that if players aren’t ready they won’t throw them in there, we’ll keep working with them and slowly develop them and bring them on further down the track," recently appointed Young Socceroos coach and long time AIS head coach Steve O’Conner said.

"Unfortunately a lot of our funding is associated arround our participation in major tournaments, so that’s were the need to qualify comes in because government funding is linked in with that and the need to qualify is paramount."

The FFA has examined the cost/benefit to this argument with Boultbee admitting that changes may need to be made in the future.

"In our discussions within the FFA we ask ‘can we afford to field every team?’ We would like to develop every age group in competition but if the financial pressures are too great we may have to prioritise on which teams have the greatest development impact on the Socceroos and Matildas."

At the Olympic age of U-23, the careers of our top young players are well on the way. The U-17 phase is seen as a crucial finishing school for technical skills, in the middle lie the U-20s.

It’s this age group that will most strongly shape the future of the Socceroos, according to Schwab, but is also feeling a financial squeeze with a planned tour of China recently cancelled due to lack of funds.

"We think the tier that is most important to the long term development of football in Australia is the U-20s. The U-17s are still very much developing and the Olympic age group have established themselves as young players, it’s the Young Socceroos, that will most strongly affect the Socceroos," Schwab said.

Combine this with a reduced nine month preparation period for the first stage of U-20 World Cup qualification in Asia and results are in danger of being disappointing.

"Under the current financial constraints we are not able to fund preparatory trips for all the younger tiers, that’s the reality of the current situation," Boultbee stated.

With football growing at such a rapid rate in Australia the future needs to be carefully managed.

Dutchman Rob Baan has been charged with overseeing the roadmap.

Will he prioritise key age groups to be sent to the global field of battle while others remain on home soil to be nurtured in the development phase?

The answer to this question will mould the success of our future generations.

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