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

Very good pickup for the FFA

This seems to be the area most complained about.

However, in elite programs someone always misses out on selection.

Abrams sees it as an issue too.


I've known a lot of discussion elsewhere about Rogic and his participation in elite programs.

FFA claim he was in the Capital Football NTC until he was 17.

Coerver claim him as a product.

Rogic said he benefited from being under Ron Smith's tutelage.

Another bloke I know involved with Football in NSW claims he was overlooked by FFA.

I know for a fact that Rogic was a member of ANU's capital football premier league team from 2009 onwards as a 16 year old. This was before it was called the NPL. This squad was predominately made up of young footballers after the debacle of the 2008 ANU premier league squad which was aging and performed poorly. Luke Pilkington (who played for Bentleigh Greens last night and was a winner of fox sports search for a superstar show about 5 years ago) was also a part of that squad. The coach was John Mitchell.

Half way through the season, Rogic went away to the Nike global superstar comp in the UK where he was among the 8 finalists. He also missed part of the season to go away and play at the AFC futsal champs in Uzbekistan where he scored 6 goals.

Good info.=d>

As always he will interview and talk to all the wrong people. The same ones that are stuffing up the game. Why not contact people outside of the system not the ones in it.

Good point! Well said.

I haven't heard a word for the new TD since he was announced.

Says above in Belgium he appointed 8-10 coach staff that were very consistent over 14 years... doubt he'd pick coaches who were below average, they'd hardly fit the consistent bill.

I would think you are right about appointing new coaches. They'd have to fit his methods. I'd even go for retired ex-socceroos to recognise good talent.

Not sure what you mean but
if you are saying he will be choosing the AIS coaches then that is not enough the problem starts at grass roots. He would need to choose all the TD for each zone and all the TD for each state and all the coaches for the AIS and that is too big a job for 1 person.
As for the TD in place at the moment you would think none of them would keep their job without very close examination.

A great appointment for Australian Football