U20's Out!

Flicking on SBS World Sport tonight I was devastated to see Australia bowing out of the U20 World Youth Championships qualification tournament. The world cup for the under 20’s has produced most of our senior national team stars and this crop of players has been described as the best group since.

Being Australian you’d think that I would be used to the heartbreak of being kicked out of tournaments before we have even begun but no, it still hurts just as much as the famous ones I have at least been alive for. Those being Iran 97 and Uruguay “Chapter 1” in 2001. This feeling however has never been felt at a youth level. With past youth teams gaining automatic qualification by breezing through the Oceanian confederation and always being at the youth world cups, I just assumed a move into Asia would be no different. We are a football powerhouse now right? Seriously the answer is we are nowhere near the level we need to be at to challenge the top nations at big tournaments.

Reports that Australia’s play has been far from impressive not only in this tournament but for years now will surely finally see the axe that has been hanging by a thread above coach Ange Postecoglou’s head finally fall. Could this be the age of a new direction and style for youth football in Australia? Could the youth team be finally developed into the same style that we want our senior national team to play in?

A football technical director should certainly be looked at being employed by the FFA right now to overhaul this whole situation with the coaching positions from under 17 all the way up to the senior side sure to be overhauled in the not too distant future.

Youth development and lower levels of the football hierarchy is the next pieces of the puzzle that needs to be addressed otherwise we run the risk of falling even further behind. It all starts with the youth and I strongly believe the system and directions are not in place to get the best out of the talent that is clearly there. Over to you FFA....

DANE