04-12-2014 22:00
Calls for a massive overhaul of Australian football's governance structure and a huge boost for grassroots coach education were two prominent topics at last night's Whole of Football Plan public forum in Melbourne.
Ex-Football Victoria chairman and former FFA director Jack Reilly said successful long-term planning for the game had to start with governance reform.
"Until you have a national governing body that has a strong and clear mandate, the game will struggle to achieve its potential," said Reilly.
"The current structure of national, state and regional administration leads to overlap, waste in resources and no real alignment. We need to change that first so there's one national body with a clear mandate from top to bottom."
On the topic of coaching, Former Socceroo and current Fox Sports Football Analyst John Aloisi believes that football needs to invest in coach education and the scouting networks to identify the talented players.
"From the fees that the parents are paying each season, the bulk of those funds needs to be channelled back into coach education to ensure that the best players are receiving the best coaching.
"We also need to improve our scouting networks to ensure that the don't miss out on the best footballers.
Over two hours the debate was lively and at the end of the public forum, FFA CEO David Gallop thank all the attendees for giving their views and time freely and from these forums FFA will look to improve football at every level of the game.