Football's Grand Plan

After 8 months of delays, the FFA finally delivered its eagerly anticipated National Football Development Plan. The blueprint for the future of the game in this country has long been considered as the single most important step on the road to establishing the sport in Australia.

The raft of proposals unveiled today cover all facets of the game, including coach and referee education programs; a national youth competition, aligned with A-League clubs to commence from next season and a women's national league, also set to begin in 2008; as well as greater rural and indigenous programs.

Highlights of the National Plan announced on Thursday by FFA CEO Ben Buckley and Chairman Frank Lowy include:

All junior players will begin their football experience playing small-sided games
A National skills testing program
The introduction of a national youth league with all Hyundai A-League clubs (except Wellington) involved plus the Australian Institute of Sport
The establishment of a National Women’s League
Regular coaching conferences utilising the best credentialed coaches from around the world including a major coaching conference around the FIFA Congress in May 2008
Targeted coaching courses for elite coaches

There will also be, for the first time, a pathway for talented players, from small sided, under 6 football, right through to the national team; a first for a sport that has been wracked with infighting and instability over it’s history in Australia.

But with the plans in place, the hard work really starts; implementing them. Dutchman Rob Baan is the federation’s Technical Director, and it will be his job to ensure that the proposals make it form paper to the pitch; a tall order in a country without a framework of coaches. There will need to be, initially, heavy investment and reliance on overseas talent and knowledge to bring the standards up to scratch. This will also test Baan’s credentials. Hired in the wake of the FFA’s love affair with another Dutchman Guus Hiddink, Baan is not as highly regarded in Holland as many would have you believe. The jury is out on his work with the Olyroos (Graham Arnold has been in charge for some of the more impressive displays), and they’ll be keen interest as he takes sole charge of the Socceroos in London on the 17th. If Baan cannot get the expertise in to support the new structure, then the whole venture could collapse.

The Australian football family is not a happy one, with various states and interested parties continually at war. This is the opportunity to forget the past, and finally take the game forward. Australian Football has the chance to establish itself as the country’s number one code over the next 15 years. This time it cannot afford to fail.