Sydney's Attempt To Profiteer On Youth

You have to hand it to Sydney FC, their audacity is astounding at times. Today’s attempt to pressure the FFA to compensate them for the loss of youth players to other A-league clubs is not only out of line, as it goes against what the FFA to trying do with not limiting youth player opportunities, but must leave the clubs that truly developed these players seething.

Why they think they would deserve any compensation is beyond me. The three players mentioned in the article (Zach Cairncross, Sam Munro and Steven Lustica ) have played one season in the youth team at the club. Now I know the coaching expertise of John Koshmina is second to none but does Stefan Kamasz really expect us to believe that Sydney FC has taken these young players and sharpen them into professional footballers in a single season?

What this outrageous demand by Sydney does do is highlight the issues that grassroots club are now facing by this system. The fact is these players have been signed to the Youth League with no compensation at all to their junior clubs that raised and nurtured them throughout their developmental years. This is the real tragedy of our current system. A system that fails to provide little reward to our grass roots clubs for their developmental programs.

Take Steven Lustica for instance, he played all of his junior days at Canberra FC. They just must love hearing Sydney ask for compensation at potentially losing him to another A-league club. Where is the call for compensation for all the work they have done to develop him into the footballer he is today.

The fact is until Sydney establish their own junior program and truly develop players from 8-12 years of age they have no claim on these players.

Of course the FFA will give this call by Sydney the short front it deserves. The whole point of the youth league system was to sign them to short amateur contracts that would allow unfettered moves to A-league clubs if and when those clubs were willing to sign them to professional contracts. Sydney like every other club has the opportunity to scout the entire youth system for talent and offer senior contacts to anyone within the system. This will ensure that no club can hoard potential stars and hold them in the youth system hoping for a pay day when an overseas club comes calling. Young players will go to the clubs that are willing to give them a chance and sign them to an A-league senior contract. This promotes youth and encourages clubs to roll on the dice on giving talented youngsters senior contacts.

The system has its problems, by allowing A-league clubs to profit when they on sell these junior players with little compensation to their junior clubs they are creating resentment within the grassroots clubs. Already we have seen Canberra FC and Melbourne Knights hint at establishing formal ties with a foreign club in an effort to avoid losing their junior stars for little or no money.

Rather than heeding Sydney’s call, the FFA should move now to ensure that these grassroots clubs receive a bigger slice of the transfer fees that A-league clubs receive when these junior players get their chance at the big time. This would not only help promote the clubs that do a good job of developing our youth but would also encourage all A-league clubs to focus more on developing their own youth pipeline.

,