All of the above has what to do with "Academies that tour asia" like the topic says. As much as you hate arguing moot points irrelevant to the topic, I hate reading your biff crap.

As far as ASA is concerned i've been polite to you and answered all questions where possible. How about showing the same courtesy?

I have no beef with you or anyone else raising and asking questions relevant. What does grind my and other peoples gears is the constant biff, trashing and out and out slander which passes the borders of libless to plain abuse of other posters for having a different view to yourself and Judy Free. You pair seem to take it in turns to derail the topic or simply trash it.

This topic isn't about "unethical practices by certain academies" which i'm sure exist somewhere and fortunately I have avoided them.

So do we have an understanding?

When a topic is bought into play through discussion namely acadameys or NSR themselves then the whole subject is in play, not just the portion that some specific people want to discuss.

The system isnt a scam, Sketic indicates through high pressure tatics its a scam but it delivers results for those who do there research. If it delivers then it cant be a scam.

Misleading? No its not, if you didnt get what you wanted out of it the general answer is your kid wasnt good enough to recieve the type of scholarship that is no offer for quality players or you where not smart enough to ask the right questions or in most cases the parents have their eyes closed on the kids talent. Do certain providers take advantage of this, yes they do, its a business, welcome to the real world

As Aussiesrus very nicely states, the correct pathways to take through the Australian process are corrupt & political, I have been surrounded by this through my whole daughters career. Again its life, I realised this some years ago and you carry on. If you cant break through that process then do you give up or look at other options like acadameys? The answer is look at the next options.

I ask why there's an avoidance of response to unethical recruiting practice of an agency and you post this to throw mud at the messenger in retaliation for having the audacity to do so?
Why?

I don't give a damn about about the academy in the above link so don't trivialise the unethical practices i speak of re a scholarship agency by attempting to trash the messenger and connecting to a totally unrelated field.

I can only surmise from the vigour and irrelevancy of your attack, your are trying to silence criticism or perhaps even mention of the practice. Again, i ask why?

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/226710,west-ham-ink-aussie-academy-deal.aspx

Oh no, another group of professionals crudely accepting payments from parents in exchange for quality coaching for kids. How dare professionals try to pay their bills and put food on the table. Oh the shame of it all!! :roll:

Quick Skeptic and Judy Free. Don't let this opportunity to trash another topic and call it all a huge scam pass you by.

Seems like your work to rid the world of academies that offer real talented kids a different pathway to the normal selection pathway is never done *sigh4u*

Got to it Batskeptic and Robinfree the caped crusaders fighting a never ending battle against academies!! LOL :roll:


Edited by Aussiesrus: 15/12/2011 08:38:57 AM

For god's sake, are you freaking people stupid, bloody stubborn or have a tunnel of fresh air from one ear to the other large enough for a subway?

I've said it before and i'll say it again. I don't give a rats arse about the above. Any of it. Do you understand? I'll say it again for the deaf, blind or dull.
I don't give a rats arse about the above. Any of it. Do you understand?

Shheeeesh. Why the avoidance of the big problem i've raised several times now? Do you lot have shares in the damn company? Honestly, do you?

Damn, you claim loudly and monotonously that you want the best for Australian football and have the best interest of Australian kids in mind, so what do you do?

Well, you see an obvious case of the most vulnerable being ripping off very big dollars by snake oil salesmen in a polished and practised operation, so, you stick a bloody big cork in your gobs and go dumb.

Be damned if i know what you're up to or why. Does anyone?

I know of about 10 sports scholarship recipients through NSR.

There have been varying levels of satisfaction.

Sometimes the football has been an issue.

Sometimes the education has been an issue.

I found that the communication between NSR and the university was too nebulous at times.

The institution was slack in communicating.

The coach told players what they wanted to hear. Players didn't know where they stood. The team was very successful, but they trained far too much.

A scam is still a scam if someone is aware enough to not be caught. It's the methodology of misleading misinformation and untruths by omission used to get the unaware and vulnerable sitting across the desk for the once in a lifetime, hard sell opportunity and to enable the signing of a very large cheque from anyone and everyone, that makes it a scam.

Gaining a scholarship is not my beef.

Edited by skeptic: 14/12/2011 04:50:42 PM

Judy Free

I have to back Decentric up on this, not every parent is sucked in, some of our kids or kids we know do actually have proven ability as Decentric mentions. My own Girl has State Level exposure and these kids will be the ones that do pick up decent offers.
As I said before NSR isnt a scam if you have your eyes open

Krones, it would be interesting to hear the price of FA advanced coaching courses in England.

They are relatively cheap here if one does community coaching courses, which culminates in senior licence as highest community coaching level before advanced licences. The cost of advanced licences is expensive.

As Gregory Parker says, there is no guarantee of employment either.

Edited by Decentric: 14/12/2011 03:37:43 PM

No.

The player already had a track record before going as a footballer to the USA.

Won a state title at age 17 with a senior split state league senior women's team. Standard of women's football here is much closer to VPL than men's.

Played for the state at under 17 level 11 v 11 outdoor at national championships.

Played for state Vikings team at national championships. Scored a number of goals and was disappointed to miss out on Aussie squad.

Nobody needed to hear that said relative had ability as a footballer.

The location, Washington State, was the greatest attraction.

It was the academic institution that was the disappointment. Amazingly, subjects can be counted from there as part of a degree here. Also, quality of life doesn't match the Apple Isle.

Not sure of its inequivalent but here are some prices in the UK

Booking Information:
To obtain the 1st4sport Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Football, candidates must attend all related sessions and show competence in all units.

The costs for all 1st4sport Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Football courses are as follows:
- £390 per candidate.
- £355 per candidate if the candidate is part of the Leicestershire & Rutland Coaches Association.
- £355 per candidate if the candidate if from a Leicestershire & Rutland County FA Charter Standard Club. A letter from the club, on official club letter headed paper, must be supplied with the candidates application form as proof.

PLEASE NOTE

If you need to complete an Emergency Aid or Safeguarding Children workshop as part of your Level 2 CCF. There is an extra cost of £29 per workshop, this must be made payable to Leicestershire FA.

1st4sport Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Football Re-Assessments:
Booking Information:
- £80 per candidate.
- £70 per candidate if the candidate is from a Leicestershire & Rutland County FA Charter Standard Club. A letter from the club, on official club letter headed paper, must be supplied with the candidates application form as proof.
- £70 per candidate, if the candidate is part of the Leicestershire & Rutland Coaches Association.

Wouldn't point the finger at KNVB - it's the way many 'businesses' have been going for the last two decades, we (Strayan Sockah) were just a bit late to catch on.

It's the KNVB way i.e. latch onto naivety and suck it dry.

They turn the whole education thing into a very profitable business, using predatory business practices and taking cronyism to the next level.

Strayan sockah is being arse raped.







Edited by judy free: 14/12/2011 08:24:43 AM

Was only $120 just a short time ago.

Bleeding joe public to keep those FFA noses in the trough, as the red ink flows.

Disgraceful.

That's the cost of sitting the exam - and it's non-refundable if you fail the exam (although I believe they give you a discount if you re-sit).

Similar situation with coaching courses. A friend of mine did his B-license in Singapore because it was cheaper to fly up there twice and pay the SFA fees, than to fly down to Sydney and pay the FFA fees.

I understand the FFA are in the process of making renewal courses compulsory, another neat little money spinner - although I can't confirm that this is 100% accurate.

Why was it meaningless?

34,000 attended a Football match on a Tuesday night.

MV got a nice big cheque which will go nicely on the balance sheet i'm sure

Football/MV/A-League/FFA got massive media exposure locally and internationally on print,radio, internet and TV

MV/A-League played another match involving an A-League team was broadcast around the world.

A heap of youngsters got a run with the senior team, albeit in friendly conditions but still a priceless opportunity for the likes pf Jeggo, Thomas and co.

How many thousands of people were exposed to the A-League that hadn't been previousy.

Indeed it was so meaningless MV have announced they would like to play more of these games.

I'm sure sure MV's sponsors are devastated by the meaningless friendly.

I'm sure there are more positives

Well how's that for unbridled arrogance.



Did you bother to tell your relative that this game was the most meaningless of all meaningless exhibition games ever played in this country?

If one goes to Europe then a player at least enters countries with a football culture.

Coaching in Europe at pro or semi-pro level should, but not always in practice, be superior to college coaching.

It is despite their development system not because of it. The USA has the greatest reserves of footballers training at professional level than any the country in the world , particularly women's. They literally have millions playing in the college systems to augment their professional leagues. In Australia we may have only under 1000 players training at this level for both genders.

My relative, returning from the USA, could not believe that Galaxy were no better than Victory, given all their reserves. She observed the game with incredulity.

It appears my critical questioning of highly unethical practices in this country by sporting scholarship agencies, practices perhaps crossing the line of legality, has been 'overlooked' in favour of the pros and cons of a US scholarship education.

The problem i speak of and my criticism along with it, is intensified by the fact 'agencies' I've experienced in the process of questionable practice, are or have been endorsed by some, if not most state federations on official federation websites and as a result, federation endorsements are used as primary promotional material on 'agency' websites.

I have no idea if there are 'arrangements' for endorsement, financial or otherwise.

Again, I have no issue with the personal choice of an education in Australia, the US or a Buddhist monastery in Tibet and this has absolutely no relevance to the above.

Someone should point out to decentric that these "archaic practices" have produced the most successful nation in FIFA Women's World Cup history.

How about that. :lol:

Is this the cost for simply sitting for the exam?

By my calcs that's about a 2000% increase since formation of the FFA.

A mate of mine has a degree in botany.

He is a tree breeder. In his field he knows two guys with Australian doctorates.

He said that both have had work interactions with Americans in their field. Both said that the Americans considered their Aussie PHDs as not having the depth required in the USA.

Conversely, when a relative went on a US soccer scholarship, they started marking her work at masters level in her first year. She found it ridiculously easy, Yet she was only a student between the 80th and 98th percentile in Australia at pre-tertiary level depending on the subject.

It seems to be a question of which institution one attends.

Edited by Decentric: 13/12/2011 06:49:32 PM

There's a lot of 'agents' around in Australia who aren't actually licensed by the FFA - for some (Bernie Mandic comes to mind) it's because they can't pass the exam, for others (Buddy Farah for example) it's because they don't see the point of giving the FFA a shed load of money when the regulations state that you don't need accreditation so long as your business partner is a licensed agent and/or solicitor. End of the day accreditation only means that you know the rules, not that you follow them.

For the record - license in Australia, $2,500 - license in UK, approx $800. And the UK agents are watched far more carefully by the authorities than the Aussie ones.

On the subject of US scholarships - as stated by others, if the college has a good reputation and offers a good degree course, then jump at it. If, on the other hand, it's a Mickey Mouse uni, RUN in the other direction. Judy's advice is perfect - do your research.

Yes, like I said one which I wont be persuing. They are entering teams for the first time and are only Division 3 which dont offer athletic scholarships, only academic so they need to throw scholarships around to attact interest.

I worked for a USA based technology company here in Australia for roughly 7 years. The academic training was constant and outstanding. So based on my experience with this company from an academic point of view it was leading edge and world class. No hype no BS and they had a way of cutting through the BS to make even the most complex of learning really easy. I use to train new employees most fresh out of uni here and the first thing I would tell them is take everything you have learned from uni and flush it down the toilet. It's over 5 years out of date and obsolete. You cannot beat a leading edge degree from the USA. Australian uni's are many years behind leading edge USA uni's.

As for their footballing educational services, They don't rate in the world of football. They are the only country in the world that holds a competition for only the USA and calls it a world series *gag*

Took me less than 2 minutes researching this college, and the alarm bells were ringing. Sketchy accreditation and seemingly handing out scholarships like M&M's. FFS do yer research. Much safer, from an academic POV, to get educated here and thereafter think about the O/S folly.

Bought the scripted sales pitch from NSR that "your kid has tons of ability" and got done hook, line and sinker.

Classic naivety.

Peanuts, with a short payback period, that is if he had any genuine belief in his own ability.

Yes.

The $2500 cost of doing the course in a city where he is not based.

He works very closely with three other licenced agents.