The Football Australia Thread

[grazorblade]

Those prices are ridiculous. How are we supposed to achieve big things when it costs up to $3,000 just to play? Kits and balls cost the same since obviously the FA don’t control that but we’re higher in every other metric. This means you either have to be rich or make sacrifices for a kid to succeed in soccer. Didn’t the Irankundas have to pull their other sons out so they could afford for Nestory to develop into a star? While obviously they wouldn’t have been as good as him they coulda been decent enough to make it as pro players.

We have an issue of not following best economic practices everywhere in the game

We use central planning to raise standards of clubs, youth development and everything else and the consensus of economists is that central planning doesn't work. It can be deceptive because it can produce initial impressive results (the soviet planned economy, the planned towns in Australia) but you always end up worse off because central planners aren't as adaptable as free markets. Licensing criteria is costing 1600 of that wage bill

In England they follow the best practice of the mixed economy

- relatively free market where government intervention is only when it can be justified. This is exemplified by an open pyramid with very gentle off field criteria to go up levels
- a welfare state where 30% of the FA's money goes back into the grass roots. I'd like to see that more generous
- regulation only based on externalities, like fair play rules trying to reduce systemic risk or preventing exploitative practices like players not being paid

 

[HappyGuus]

tas clubs seem nervous to use their rights according to victoria mortons blog

Gotta get her on the pod mate

 

[grazorblade]

Gotta get her on the pod mate

invited her a week ago and no cigar will try again in a few months

 

[grazorblade]

Looked at the difference in governance in football tas and victoria

- victoria seems to have a lower quorum threshold. Tasmania require 60% of clubs to be present to have a quorum and Victoria just 15% which makes it easier for a group of clubs to lobby and pressure in victoria
- Victoria allows a general meeting with voting to be called if 10% of clubs want it. No provision is in tasmania.

That's the only relevant differences I can find. Be curious what others can find

I'm also confused about whether they have zones or not

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I can't remember lol. I probably should do it in a pod, I think in the coach rory interview? I also wrote a roar article but the formatting meant I was cautious not making it too mathy

Breakdown per kid was roughly follows in AUD (I need to look at my old documents for exact values)

Item	Price in England	Price in Australia
Field hire	0*	$300-$600
Kit,referees, training balls etc	$700	$700
Liscense and registration fees	$50	$333
Investment*	-$200	0
Youth Coaches	0	$1300
Total	$550	$2633-$2933

*This is major cost difference as the FA in England spend 30% of their budget revinvesting into the game, compared to 1% locally. They do not get subsidies from the EPL and they actually have less revenue per participant than we do, just different budget priorities. AFC stoneham split the cost of their fields three ways with the FA and the local council for example
**This is the figure it was hardest to be sure of the numbers. English clubs, being in an open pyramid youth is a way to get more revenue even low down the pyramid, as good youth could mean promotion, whereas youth in Australia are only subsidized out of a clubs' good will. Clubs in England usually have more amateurs which are used to subsidize the youth. As a result more than half of English players are adults, unlike Australia where it is mostly a kids game. More amateurs also means more fans. The exact numbers are likely to vary by club and some clubs in Australia claim to subsidize their youth and some are accused of profiting to subsidize the senior team but I couldn't confirm that. The numbers are likely to vary in England a lot too
***This was the biggest difference. Our licensing puts minimum qualification requirements on youth coaches and technical directors. While this is in principle possible to have with volunteers, it is hard and so clubs have to hire people. Wallsall united insisted on volunteers only and managed to get their costs down under a $1000 per kid. This is apparently tricky to scale, since you are forced to have people with certain coaching qualifications and there is not enough around to insist on voluteers.

You forgot to mention the NSL haters battlecry of "da effnickz rob parents to pay for the first team" Its been mentioned so many times on this forum I would have thought it would have somehow manifested as truth by sheer xenophobia alone.