Fair enough. Agree that costs need to be managed and agree that the FFA seem to be focused on doing the least possible since anything more would cost money/effort.

There is a significant issue that sits around access to elite training, and it is entirely centred around the cost of the game. There are those who have sufficient talent and financial and social advantage that they are able to access the elite pathways, for those who have the talent there is only the hope that you get found by an overseas academy who will provide the financial support to enable your development.

They get to use the money that the game receives from private and governmental sources to line their own pockets either directly through income or indirectly through their quid quo pro connections.

I'm still trying to understand the justification behind option 2. 

What do the bean counters gain from continuing to stifle growth? 

Good post, GA.

Good to see you back, mate!

We could  do with a few more positive posters returning or joining 442.

One thing the is the case, is that those who manage to get into a pro development system travel reasonably well in Oz. It is those who are probably good enough, but miss the cut that is the problem.

There are two sections of the FFA in terms of football development.

1. The FFA Technical Department - who have little control over financial resources. 

2. The FFA bean counters - who end up being  decision-makers. They stifle 1.

Most of 1 hate 2.

1 wants to build football in Oz, with more teams, promo /releg, etcetera. They also want more games for  national youth teams.

2 has stifled the growth of football in Oz.

Mate I'll level with you and agree many posts are not bright but thats the big picture.
I'm sure most if not all here so wish for a positive outlook but its not there.
I watched the downfall of the NSL, yep nothing is perfect for look where we are right now, I actually think in a worse position.
GA's post is a cracker !

I hope that we win tonight and continue to have a robust discussion on why the development of footballers stalls at the age of 16. The obvious answer is of course that they have nowhere to go and not a single club in Australia has any financial incentive to invest in youth development. The entire system that has been put in place with new football has been designed to create a monopoly over the sources of revenue that the game is able to accumulate in favour of the national body, the FFA. This has allowed wages at the home office to skyrocket without any reference to developmental or sporting KPIs. We, the sporting public, and journalists exacerbated this problem by allowing the allure of World Cup qualification to divert attention away from the massive chasm of inequity that was opening up underneath the feet of the grassroots of the game. Grassroots football is what develops players and they have been starved. My recommendation to anyone with a decent level of talent is to get the hell out of Australia and overseas to one of the countries that actually take youth development seriously.

When Australia finally decides to move to a meritocratic value system around the football pyramid and opens up the game to financial investment throughout the levels then we will start to see the reemergence of the developmental systems that created our previous generations of world-class footballers.

i hope we win tonight just so i can finally read some positive comments 

No matter paid unpaid be it board members but that useless over paid CEO for one is culpable for one praying Socceroos as the primary cash cow in the future. (I'd love to be proven wrong but......)
He and those around him know having struggled the longest route to quali the WC in the first place was enough alarm bells, to then put on a fighting soso performance( god bless them) with a band aid last minute coach the writing was on the wall long ago regards players quality for the future.
To work in hope to qualify next WC you have got to be living on a whim and a prayer let alone our poor Joeys in tournaments now and future.
I feel for our young hopefuls who will work their arse's off with a system and funding that is not good enough full stop.
Now more than ever our really promising young players need to get out of here in the massive EU or elsewhere mosh pit it is today for your not going to get enough hanging around this place.

“What are the salaries of the FFA board members? ”

I think they are unpaid too. But that’s a good example of why you should manage costs AND changes in costs

I'm pretty sure they are unpaid. It's other areas of staff where the FFA spend too much.

What are the salaries of the FFA board members?

“They are focused on managing costs. Wrong metric to use... ”

not quite, if it’s the ONLY metric they use then it would be wrong. But any organisation that doesn’t manage costs is doomed to failure.

When we see the FFA's baby in the Socceroos potentially miss out in 2022 after all the bad decisions they have then you know when they start to panic.

They are focused on managing costs. Wrong metric to use...

I'm confused though...should I be suspicious of the functioning and operations of the FFA or are they just inept? 

I can't put my finger on it. 

I'd have to say I agree with all this post.

A pertinent issue is that  nobody has been appointed of a national FFA TD for all ages since Berger left. He has never been replaced. Even though Abrams was 16 and under TD, he had little status.

It seems that FFA bean counters are making too many decisions  about football performance that the FFA Tech Dept should. Appointing a TD responsible for juniors up to senior level is integral to success and a holistic system.

Of course the lack of resources and lack of time together for national teams is a big issue too - as Milicic has elucidated.

Soccer Australia were able to organise more opportunities for our youth teams to play friendlies in the lead-up to major tournaments than the current FFA have done with far less access to resources and broadcasting revenue. 

The people at the top simply don't understand football. It's pretty much as easy as that. They are corporate consultants used to working for big banks, insurance companies and law firms. That is whose running our game at the moment. Those are the people who are calling the shots on youth development. 

I guess it's good in a way there aren't bean counters at the top anymore. There aren't very many beans to count at all so one person could do it without a calculator at the moment. 
Short of forming economic partnerships with individuals and companies to get investment in the game, we're really just sitting around like lame ducks, waiting for some rich Aussie who loves football to throw millions of dollars at us without expecting to see any of it again. Surely some of these billionaires happy to bid for aleague licences could chuck some spare change to our junior national teams so we can have generate players to make the nation happy!

That's exactly the point. This programme works really well until they reach the age where the club academies "should" be taking over and furthering their development in line with world's best practices. 

This isn't happening and we are seeing more often than not, players stagnating once they reach the age of 13+.

The elite clubs in this country do not have the right environment in place to allow these kids to develop into elite footballers. 

Although things like the NC is an idea for setting the right foundation when they get older, im also getting the feeling its becoming more apparent that it means little when it comes to the elite level where its about the environment of training and games played that really sets the standard.

Some of the coaches in the coalface involved mention the technical level of the current guys in the SAP leagues are similar to the level in Europe but when they hit about 13 and over then the level really jumps up and it becomes too late to catch up when they reach 16 or 17.

This should be paramount with the a-league academies as well as the second division where it should be an opportunity to have the best and coaches in system, right now its all over the place.  

The current Joeys were all born in '02, so it's safe to say they have been through the entire programme from age 7 onwards. If they fail to live up to the hype in Brazil later this year (they were still dominated by Japan in last years AFC tournament), then we can put to rest the idea that the NC is some sort of panacea to our youth development woes. 

As I have noted in several other threads, the fact that our young players lack the intense training & match practice of their European, Latin American and even Asian counterparts compounds the issue of the NC's inability to deliver results. 

I listened to the FFA forum and Luke Casserly said the current Joeys we first to go through most of the whole system, and underneath that 2004 age group went through it starting as 5-year-olds

I agree we have waited quite awhile for this new system to click in, this better come good otherwise we will be in deep trouble.

When the new FFA National KNVB curriculum came about and said results don't matter I knew we were screwed. Creating players without a winning mentality lol. When was this back in ~2011? People here have been saying wait and see, It's been 8 years now. Our NT is trash, our youth teams are too. Players still struggle to play out from the back under a press lol. 

If cost is such an issue for the FFA, would it not be possible to organise a round-robin friendly tournament with OFC nations (say NZU23's, Soloman Islands NT, New Caledonia NT & Tahiti NT) and another few matches against a select XI NPL(VIC) & NPL(NSW) sides? 

The point is these guys need matches to work through tactical scenarios in games and on their cohesion. Without it, they simply go into tournaments fumbling their way through to hopeful qualification. 

Even the cash-strapped Soccer Australia ensured our youth teams had enough practice games under their belts before sending them into a qualifying round or actual tournament. 

that we have, and in another thread that argument carries on about having Finals.
Yer ok our country has been brought up with it due the usual larger codes here, I accept that but FFS as we all know our code has the largest Ingternational tournament in the world + others to qualify for and those FFA donkeys know it and they have kept turning the tap off since 06 thinking we will keep qualifying for the return but now they are going to see we are going to keep struggling to qualify for anything from here on as has currently been occurring for our Youth, its a bomb waiting to explode regards the Socceroos.
Matildas now are our only hope giving us positive headlines and these donkeys next will milk this for all its worth and pour bugger all even at the levels where it needs to keep growing regards development.

So true Waz International break coming up, our boys who need every single chance playing together will be on hols lol........

We have an international break this weekend, who are the Socceroos facing?

You only have to look at the FFA Board Members and Senior Management Team to understand why nothing will improve. Bugger all real football experience. 
Most just in it for the bucks and their egos.