Anyone who has been to, or been involved with, the NTC system for boys will tell you that it is largely irrelevant in identifying/selecting/coaching players for national teams.
And a lot of the kids will tell you that it's more a fun week of footy than a challenging week of learning and development.
The NZ Football "system" is fundamentally average which is why private academies are thriving.
Not sure if you are referring to a specific age-group by that comment, but based on my conversations with a number of the 13s who have attended NTC this year that is not the case - all found the environment very challenging and learnt a great deal at the camps.
Agree that NZ Football system is behind that of most academies and can't talk to what they are doing to narrow that gap, hard when competing against a pay-to-play model.
I have seen good improvements at FTC level in the three years my son has been involved - admin, structure, coaching.
Have heard stories of how there is a bit of 'us and them' between some academies/clubs and the FTC / NZF system where players basically told not to waste their time because of standard of coaching etc., got better chances within their club or academy.