Going Down A Separate Path

Last week was in some ways a red letter day for football in Australia, as not only was the exisiting National Club Identity Policy introduced by the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) canned, but the the National body admitted that it had made a mistake with the policy.

The official statement declared that “FFA Chairman Chris Nikou said the Board of Directors, at its recent meeting made the in-principle decision to replace the existing NCIP with a new Diversity and Inclusion Policy.” In truth we are surprised it lasted this long, and one wonders how those who defended it so vehemently feel now. (Football Cleansing – A Step Too Far)

What was interesting with this announcement was the admission that the FFA had “over 700 submissions received from the wider football community” wanting to see the policy changed. One wonders how many legal challenges there were too.

However credit to the new Board, who have seen the need for change and are looking to make necessary changes. Their state affiliates could do with taking the same approach.

On the very same day that the FFA released their news Football West once again sought support for what was originally labelled “The Home of Football,” but has now been re-branded as the “State Football Centre.”

Cleverly this has now been rebranded as being about “Grassroots” rather than vanity, as the headline read “Support Grassroots Football – Now.”

Yet the opening line, or the plea is not about Grassroots at all. It reads “With over 230,000 players in WA, football requires investment in facilities to ensure that our players, coaches and officials don’t miss out.” This is an alleged total number of people playing football in Western Australia. It is not the total number of players registered with Football West. This is a number that hovers between 42,000 and 45,000. Which if we take the top end of the registered players is only 19% of those playing football in Western Australia!

A petition is attached to the article asking for signatures to support the continued push for a State Football Centre in Queens Park. In that petition the game is constantly referred to as “Soccer,” going against the grain of the FFA’s wishes. The claims are that by signing this petition Football West will then be in a position to secure the following:

“secure funding to improve female and grassroots facilities in WA

have facilities to support WA in securing international football to generate investment for our local football community

ensure that WA is part of the 2023 Women’s World Cup and doesn’t miss out to the Eastern States, as we did the 2015 Asian Cup

have the training facilities to support our WA players, coaches and referees.”

If you bother to read the petition the opening sentence immediately highlights what the issue is all about, which is a new administrative office. It reads “More than 230,000 Western Australians now play soccer in WA and this number is rapidly growing, but did you know that soccer remains the only major sporting code in WA without a dedicated administrative and training base?” The reason has been covered here before and can be read at Time to Leave Home.

The opening line of the second paragraph re-emphises the point, “The proposed Centre would provide a state of the art administration and training facility specifically designed for the needs of the soccer community in WA.” It goes on to state that the venue will be “able to host events such as the FFA Cup, local league matches and other matches such as under-age or women’s internationals, a specialised sports science facility, access to two pitches capable of high-performance and high-intensity usage, with lighting infrastructure, infrastructure to support pitches, including change rooms and gymnasium.” This really does sound like its all about Grassroots doesn’t it?

In truth ” Grassroots” is a very small part of the package. Let’s be honest it is a hook to try and pull in Government funding as is the link to the female side of the game. How is a state Football Centre going to help secure international football? Didn’t Chelsea come to play at the new state-of-the-art Optus Stadium? Aren’t Manchester United and Leeds United coming later this year? Would that venue not host games at the 2023 Women’s World Cup?

If it is about training facilities then there is some mileage in that argument. Yet if that was the main reason for this push why is Football West pulling in a different direction to the FFA?

In February of this year the FFA came out and said the problem facing the game, which everyone knew, was the lack of pitches to accommodate the growth in participation across the country. They said that they were setting up a task force to travel around the country to assess the situation. Why they could not have the State Bodies supply this information is strange. Maybe they don’t trust the honesty of the information they would receive?

This is a definite problem across Australia and not just for football. It is a very real problem, and one that State and Federal Governments need to address. Quite how one venue will solve this problem only those at Football West can answer.

Surely as we have advocated previously a similar investment strategically throughout the state would be a far wiser move. (Upgrade Grounds or Home of Football? – Time to Vote) Improving facilities at exisiting venues with the help of local councils and state government and building up infrastructure within those areas to help employment would be more beneficial? Imagine a boutique hotel being created close to an exisiting round for teams who wish to come and train at the ground to use. This would attract A-League and W-League teams as well as teams from Asia to come and have training camps. By having more than one venue you can have more than one team come at any one time. The hotel could be used for end of season functions for local clubs, creating carnivals with interstate sides. The possibilities are endless.

If a number of centres were developed and all weather pitches installed then suddenly you are creating more facilities to play the game. With the State Football Centre being located in one place geography is immediately a problem as it would not fulfil that requirement. Are school children in the North of the city really going to travel to Queens Park to play?

The plan has always been to force NPL or State League clubs to play games at the centre, hopefully that has changed. As again fans from clubs in other areas are unlikely to travel to watch. With clubs struggling to attract spectators as it is this will only help to drive those fans away.

However, once again if Football West were linked into the FFA’s thinking they would be looking to create centres around the state to develop the game and create playing space for the growing numbers. Another reason that they would be doing this is because when the FFA announced they were dropping the National Club Identity Policy it was acknowledged how many established clubs were responsible for having actually helped develop the game.

The FFA stated that the new policy moving forward will be based on “the importance of football embracing the wider community and of clubs, as the lifeblood and shopfront of the game, being accessible, embracing and truly representative of their geographical regions.”

Having tried to put all of the foundation clubs, which have been for too long referred to as “Ethnic,” (Time to Actually Make Football The World Game in Australia) into a box and ensure that they are forgotten, the FFA has realised the error of their ways. They have realised that these were the clubs that were developing the Socceroos of tomorrow. So they stated that in future there will be “recognition of the heritage of clubs and the significant contribution of particular communities within the broader community to the development of individual clubs and the game as a whole.”

So when one considers those statements, and the need for more pitches in the suburbs for the many thousands of players NOT registered with Football West how can one central location make any sense in ensuring the the game achieves its goals? Not only that, it defies the objectives of the Game’s governing body.

Football West has spent tens of thousands of dollars on this project since it first conceived the “Home of Football” idea in 2013. We have heard it was going to be erected at Floreat Athena’s ground, Ashfield, Bayswater and now Queens Park. We have seen the Liberal Party make promises that they will commit millions if elected. Now we have Labor Party doing the same. Why? Simply because they believe that it will entice some of the 230,000 playing the game to vote for them. Will they deliver on their promise? That is unlikely as Australia’s economic situation is not a good one, there will therefore be more pressing projects to spend money on and the State Football Centre will be “put on hold.”

The truth is it should be binned. Too much time and money has been spent on this project which is now not the best option to serve the needs of the game. In order to grow the game and offer more playing opportunities this money would be invested far better if distributed into key areas within the state. After all does the game really need a new administration office?