Looking at the figures, and understanding how the ASC/AIS funding works (at a base, bog-standard level), I would say so. I think it was the superglue being applied to the coffin, and failing to qualify for Rio was the nail.

There definitely does seem to be a spike pre olympics!

Wonder if 2012s failure was basically the end of the ais

The final year of the FFA CoE was 2017, where I'm quite certain (from memory) they won the league (or came 2nd) - either way, they weren't eligible for finals in the NPL.

On other notes - Key things to note here guys are the following:

• ASC, etc, fund sports based on the probability of an Olympic medal. This is probably very noteworthy in why the money/support dried up post-2008.
• Majority of the funding will come in Olympic years. You'll note in those figures provided in OP, the major years of funding are for Olympic years (and also seemingly in the build-up to qualifying for London 2012, where ultimately the Olyroos failed to qualify)

1st jan 2005 though the allegations of fraud and mismanagement were made in 2003 according to wiki

yeah football inflation really has hurt us, it is higher than regular inflation. A semi pro comp in the 90s is not rediculously far off the top in europe, but with 9% inflation per year the gap has opened up

I wonder if someone outside an official channel could make a football lobby group

Have some transparent rules on how priorities are determined and how consultancy is done to decide these priorities

Do you know why the quality of football layer decline before the funding declined?

When was the first year FFA took over? I recalled the funding got axed and then it was rebranded as FFA COE and they played in the ACT NPL.

Its a shame but with aleague academies in place I don’t think it offers much as a good alternative unless if it’s used for players outside of the aleague academy pathways then it might add value otherwise that ship has sailed sadly.

Bit I agree it was a crucial building block for the GG side which took them to the next level as youth players during that time. 

Inflation is a killer there, if I'm reading it correctly. So we actually peaked in 03/04.

Swimming isn't a threat to Rugby/AFL so all parties can get behind it. If its football though I'm sure they will coming up with reasons like "but...what about the funding for the hospitals and schools?"

Interesting Grazer and jas88 even more so reading where a lot of funding went.
It sure shows how weak our governance has been lobbying for the game to prosper ahead in the AIS.
Or is it they weren’t listening ?! 

If you go through the history of the entire institute it's been a slow death spiral.... depending which way you look at it. 

Its established in 1981, recruiting some of the best coach and trainers in the country... they also recruited and started a sports medicine division - this made us one of the leading sports medicine countries in the world and many Aussies have benefitted from this by working for some of the biggest sporting organizations in the world.
They built the AIS arena during this time. The AIS Arena is a 5,200 capacity indoor stadium which has been used for sports such as basketball, gymnastics and volleyball as well as music concerts. Directly adjacent to, but not strictly part of the institute is the 25,000 capacity outdoor Canberra Stadium which has hosted matches of all the major forms of football played in Australia.

From the late 90s to 2010 they built a substantial amount of sporting complex's... probably too many in my opinion especially considering all the new facilities we inherited from the Olympic games. 

2003 - Archery Centre and AIS Rowing Centre extension opened. AIS Golf facility located at Moonah Links, near Rye on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula opened.
2005 - New extension to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Diving dry land training facility at the Sleeman Centre in Chandler, Queensland opened.
2006 - New $17 million Aquatics Training and Recovery Centre was constructed. The 50 metre training pool has a range of high-tech performance analysis devices and biomechanical systems including instrumented start blocks and turn walls, timing gates, strategically placed cameras, filming dolly and tracks built in Canberra.
2007 - AIS Hub opened. The AIS hub features a 110-metre indoor running track (with jumping pit), new physiology laboratories and an enhanced strength and conditioning gymnasium. New AIS Athlete Residences opened. Built in Canberra.
2011 - European Training Centre opened in Gavirate, province of Varese, Italy

Then in 2012 after a government change and the libs got in funding was gutted considerably. From 2014, as a result of Australia's Winning Edge 2012-2023 strategy, the AIS no longer directly offered scholarships to athletes. This just straight up deleted a major pathway for young footballers in Australia. 

Since then they have focused more on commercial partnerships with NBA by opening an academy in partnership with them and they did the same will volleyball Australia. 

Not a single facility for football? How many fucking swimming pools do we need? It's a worthless sport in terms of money/advertising because its only popular for 2 weeks once every 4 years. 

I wonder if we can use the ETC? would be good option for euro based aussies/youth tournament prep/ etc?

They basically abandoned football in Australia they seem heavily involved with more olympic sports and are a very big part of the NBL growth. 

I was curious about the history of funding of the AIS. The results really suprised me. The AIS funding actually peaked in 2010/2011. Though taking football inflation into account it peaked in 03/04. I wonder why it stopped producing good players? The 2000 olympics team contained most of our golden generation and the players born after 1981 formed the missing generation which should have benefitted from generous ais funing.

I take all data from clearinghouseforsport.gov.au . I put the raw funding numbers first in AUD then in brackets I have the number adjusted for football inflation in 96/97 funding numbers

96/97 2.3 million
98/99 2.7 million (2.5)

99/00 2.8 million (2.3)

01/02 2.3 million (1.7)

02/03 2.3 million (1.6)

03/04 5.5 million (3.4)

04/05 5.5 million (3.1)

05/06 5.9 million (3.0)

06/07 3.3 million (1.6)

07/08 7.1 million 3.0)

08/09 7.0 million (2.7)
09/10 7.1 million (2.5)
10/11 9.1 million (2.9)
11/12 5.7 million (1.7)
12/13 3.5 million (0.9)
13/14 5 million (1.2)
14/15 3.2 million (0.7
15/16 3.2 million (0.6)

2017 shut down

Curious on peoples thoughts about the rise and fall of the ais