Australia could be the next Belgium, says new FFA technical director
Date
September 24, 2014
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Sebastian Hassett
Sebastian Hassett
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David Gallop (right) welcomes FFA's new technical director Eric Abrams.
David Gallop (right) welcomes FFA's new technical director Eric Abrams. Photo: Peter Rae
Eric Abrams named new technical director

The man who helped plant the seeds of the remarkable rise of Belgian football says there's no reason he can't manufacture the same outcomes in Australia.

Eric Abrams, 57, was unveiled on Wednesday as Football Federation Australia's new technical director, bringing an end to the lengthy search to find a replacement for Dutchman Han Berger.

Berger had been in the role since 2008, with his main achievement being the development of an over-arching strategy for player development, the national football curriculum. He has now moved on to a boardroom role with Sydney FC.

Abrams' focus will be slightly different to that of Berger, who was given a major influence over all spheres of the game, well beyond the standard remit of a technical director. Abrams' role will be focused more on youth coach education – arguably the biggest issue facing the game in Australia – and ensuring the national curriculum is implemented in its entirety by those at the development level.

The task is considerable given the startling lack of elite talent to emerge in recent years but Abrams is confident things will turn around during his tenure.

"All the experiences I had in the interviews I did before coming here convinced me I had the chance to work with people who have an open mind," he said. "And these people who are engaged [at the FFA] have the same vision about what is going to happen in the next few years in Australia."

FFA chief executive David Gallop reckoned Abrams boasted "all the skills and attributes we were looking for when we set out on a worldwide recruitment process".

"Eric has an impressive background in elite youth development in Belgium and has played an integral role in producing what the technical experts believe is one of the strongest groups of international players in world football," Gallop said.

Perhaps most exciting for Socceroos' fans is that the new appointment played a first-hand role in guiding the likes of Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, Romulu Lukaku and Jan Verthongen during their teenage years.

Belgium's rise from a fringe European nation to a World Cup contender has been meteoric from the outside but Abrams, who was in charge of the nation's under-15 and under-17 teams between 2002 and 2013, says it was very much down to planning and hard work. "[Australian can be] similar to Belgium," he said.

"The success of the Red Devils [the Belgium nation team] is not a coincidence. It is a job that took almost 14 years. We could do this because we worked with a team of staff members who were very consistent. There were eight-10 of us who worked together for 14 years on a consistent policy of development and coach education."

Abrams stressed that he did "not want to make a copy of Belgium" but that he would seek to create a strong enough development program that could replicate Belgium's incredible current depth.

"It is not only the Red Devils who were in Brazil who were at a high level – we have already prepared some generations to follow up," he said. "It will be difficult for them because our generation will play for 6-8 years in the highest competitions, but we have prepared them. In Australia, we can implement some of the great things we did in Belgium in both structure and strategy. I'm convinced we will make progress."

One of the key issues in recent times has been a failure to identify players of potential and Abrams has already earmarked this as a problem that needs rectifying.

"In the pool of all the participants we need to instil a very good talent identification system," he said. "We want to give all the chances to talented players – to have enough practice, to have enough development with good coaches and then I think there will be a solution for the future of Australian football."

Abrams said he would spend the first three months of his new job going around the country to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing programs in the various state and territory associations.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/australia-could-be-the-next-belgium-says-new-ffa-technical-director-20140924-10lhbl.html