Wellington Phoenix Football Academy

Not certain but fairly sure Alex Rufer isn't at school any more. The others are old enough to have already finished.

Said in today's paper he was going to commute and finish the year off at PNBHS

Yeah, schooling is the issue for the younger age group. APFA in Chch have a relationship with local high school, where the kids knock off school half an hour early to get to training, but the athletes only train 5 afternoons a week and no game guaranteed each weekend. Ole do the correspondence/tutor thing with a focus on SAT entrance but I heard this wasn't working too well and they were looking to form a relationship with a school that would allow morning and afternoon training sessions.

Education that supports sport as a career choice is the challenge for FSE if they are serious about it becoming a professional Nix Youth Academy.

Central Coast Mariners have formed a relationship with a local sports school with a focus on supporting football and tennis athletes with some sort of education that supports careers in or around those sports (looks like a charter school to me). Other sports high schools in Oz  might be a model to look at too, or are our football schools (MAGS, Westlake etc) already doing that?

Snippet from Mourinho interview re state of youth football development - comparing England to Spain; and need for feeder teams to be playing competitive football.

Full article here

As for England's performances, Mourinho once again lamented the absence of a feeder-club system in English football that would give young players an opportunity to play together in a competitive environment. "In Portugal and Spain the second team plays in the championship and it is very productive. They cannot be promoted, of course, but they can be relegated. And it's a real competition for them.

"I know it's difficult in England. But I'm just curious reading about the situation. Because it's sad when the Under-20s draw against Iraq. The Under-21s, they go and lose against Israel. It's not normal when they [England] have the best football [league]."

Mourinho said he had learned a great deal about boys' football from the experience of his son, Jose Jnr, now 13, in Madrid. "I'm very curious about English youth football," he said. "I have to smell it. If I can support it with my experience I will… I need to understand how the competition is working.

"For example in Spain, my kid, now he's 13, but even when he was 10 he was playing in the championship with 16 teams, 30 official matches in the league, playing 30 matches in the Madrid area with the best teams in Madrid.

"Kids of 10, they played international tournaments in the summer, at Christmas, at Easter, at Carnival [in February]. They always have five international tournaments during the season. So kids of 10 years old were playing 30 matches in their league and tournaments where they play [many] matches.

"They are there for a week and they play 10 matches against Americans, Italians, Brazilians. It's unbelievable the amount of matches they play. In the region of Madrid they also have the selection [representative team] of the best local players and they have training sessions with the best kids of every competition organised by the federation. And we are talking about kids of 10 years old. So, for me, what we call the competitive calendar is very, very important.

Amusing when you think in NZ we (some) are concerned about players doing "too much football" if they train 4 days a week and play two games over a weekend. Give me a break.

Jose Jr for the Nix!

.... and if not of rep level play grand total of 18 competitive games per year in a 10 team league (if lucky) ... and even then Council deems the pitch unfit for play every 3rd weekend ... It's a joke, really, when you think about it. Or rather, not a joke. Sad.

Firstly, absolute textbook Ricki Herbert gibberish/nothing speak (quite ironic when the headline is Ricki Herbert Sheds light on New Role that it's still an absolute mystery to me what he's actually going to be doing!)

"I'm working with Rob Morrison, one on one, and looking at building the depth and strength of the club as far as the youth is concerned, around New Zealand," Herbert said.

"Creating a more visible pathway for young players. That can happen in a number of places around the country so I'm quite excited about it really. Over the next month or so we should have some outcomes leading from that."

My take is that's he is helping to link academies to the Phoenix. Not sure what that entails but I suspect if Ricki Herbert knocked on their door as opposed to Rob Morrison, they would be more inclined to listen. That's not to say its anything meaningful, just my take on it.

Any one know how Basalaj's overseas trial went?

"I'm working with Rob Morrison, one on one, and looking at building the depth and strength of the club as far as the youth is concerned, around New Zealand," Herbert said.

"Creating a more visible pathway for young players. That can happen in a number of places around the country so I'm quite excited about it really. Over the next month or so we should have some outcomes leading from that."

• National Talent Centres
• NZ Secondary Schools teams
• Napier U19 tourney
• Auckland U17 tourney
• WYNRS
• Ole Academy
• APFA
• Some specific schools
• Otago Milk Cup teams
• Nike Cup teams
• Rep futsal teams
• ASB Youth teams

He'll rack up some air points.

Ricki Herbert Hoofball Academy.

Yeah I'm sure it would be very profitable for him personally to get his academy linked to the Phoenix...

Is that not Ricki's role anyway as All Whites Coach? I always thought the head coach is also responsible for the youth develepment in the country to feed him with future players.

No

From Stuff article on Lochead/TW, 15 August

Calcott is working closely with Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick to identify the eight football school of excellence players who will also play for Team Wellington. Calcott said the youngsters would train with Team Wellington "90 per cent of the time," removing the confusion which marred last season's campaign.He had been given instructions to try to win the league, rather than focusing solely on developing prospective Phoenix players.

At tonight's fan forum they announced that there would be an equivalent in Wellington to the APFA starting in Term 1, and then one in Auckland starting mid-next year. No indication of what they would be but they indicated that they would be partnerships with external parties in both cases.

Smithy, safe to assume Ole and WYNRS would be the favorites? 

Interesting. That's the CCM model but for all it's outwards appearance it's been a disaster (kids coming from Sydney and then leaving when they see it's only local CCF coaches running it). Mariners actually want to run the Academy but Central Coast Football not about to let it go.

Also, would be interesting for Federations; ie align with local one, but in other centres align with a private provider. in competition to feds.

I'm picking private in each centre - and let NZF talent id happen via FTC/NTC etc.

The Phoenix may not be able to do better which is a fair point. If they were going to be associated with it, would it be fair to suggest they would want an oversight on the operation?

Well that's never going to happen JV.  APFA, Ole, WYNRS are all businesses in their own right (as is every private academy), each with their unique way of operating and own business goals.

To me the Nix going down his path seems like a no-cost, short term view. Doubt they'll even provide scholarships for players to attend - has that even been confirmed yet? Bit of a cop-out really (well, disappointment may be more accurate), compared a fully fledged Nix Academy. Other A league clubs are already miles ahead of them.

Academy: "la la land", "no outcome"????

Oh dear. I hope the nix board have bigger dreams than that for the club. 

Oh and just a factual correction: other A League clubs are not miles ahead of them. 

At least not to the best of my knowledge.

What you say is true Smithy to a point. There also needs to be a certain 'quality' about the existing place. If the only option in some of these places is the 'Vinnie Jones school for hatchet men' then getting involved with an existing academy may not be a good thing.

It makes sense to piggy back onto one but only if thy do have the right qualities of a good academy. What those are, is not for me to decide.

Totally agree Jeff. 

Nix need an academy because we have no NYL team entry. That’s the heart of the matter.

My issue is twofold: 1) to my knowledge Nix have not sought to tap into NZF National Talent identification (starts at age 12); the Capital Football equivalent of this is a start but does not cast the net nearly wide enough. 2) numerous private academies are unlikely to ever sit under a Nix directed pathway.

First and foremost private academies are businesses where pure talent is not the only point of entry. Attitude, aptitude etc. all come into it as they should but the ABILITY TO PAY is key.

Also, they are not professional football club environments.

Nix is the only professional football club environment we have in the country.

Of course Nix is a business too; but in my idealistic view of the world, ability to pay would not be a consideration for entry into a Nix-run academy.

From Nix POV, ability to fund an Academy seems to big an elephant to hunt & eat - sure, I get that; but that is a board/strategic/long term decision.

To my original point - I’m disappointed that a few random scattered private academies - especially if they are old boys networks - ie RHA and Stu Jacobs/Kaizen, Tornadoes, WYNRS - get the nod, as all they seem to be doing is running a few extra training sessions a week and perhaps playing in an international tournament. Realistically it will be impossible to oversee/monitor. At least APFA/Ole have a whole of player approach that includes education, sports science and realistic pathways; but the players there are there because they have the ability to pay, so Nix are missing out on an awful lot of NZ talent.

NZF, by the way, offers sweetFA beyond youth World Cup qualifications/tournaments and of course ASB Youth/League. Federation Talent Centres do their 2/3 times a week sessions throughout the year. The highest level - best of the best - NTC players get 2 x 5 days camps a year until the age of 15/16 and that’s it.

As to “Aussie way ahead” comment - in reality I’ve probably conflated academy/talent id/youth team/fse - it’s virtually impossible not to. Aussie is ahead due to NYL teams, and a robust state/national youth tournament system that identifies talent and then takes the cream of the crop into a full-time football environment at either regional/state/national Institutes of Sport; and hence to A-league  NYL/club system (and yes there is a market for private academies too; often it must be said, for players not selected through FFA system).

And for no other reason than I heard it this morning, here is an interview broadcast by Radio NZ on the weekend.

Radio NZ Ole interview

Aha. That is much better! And I immediately respect more the opinion of anyone who can correctly use the word "conflate".

I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying, but my point is that while all that might be nice and good it's not going likely to result in a much greater outcome (= more really good players) than what they are doing. It will, however, cost sh1t loads of money and disrupt the "market" hugely.

I also think you have some inaccuracies in there. You say that APFA etc aren't "professional environments" but, if the Nix started their own Academy and signed all of APFA players (maybe not all, but it doesn't change the point) how does the fact that it has a Nix badge on it make it a more professional environment?

In my view APFA offers as good a solution as anything the Nix could throw up. So to would Ole, if everyone could get along with them.

Your point about cost is very valid though. There shouldn't be a cost if you're a good enough player. APFA have for ages doled out scholarships, Ole do to but keep it pretty quiet. I'd like to think, although it hasn't been said, that if the Phoenix wanted a player to attend APFA but he couldn't afford it that they would stump up.

Assuming that is the case, I don't think there's a better (= more pragmatic) solution in the offing.

Good chat though.