The world game's fight for facilities

Community football (soccer) clubs across Victoria are set to benefit from a share in $645,000 worth of funding courtesy of the Victorian Coalition Government's 'Strengthening the World Game' program.

Making the announcement last week at Colchester Reserve, home of the Boronia Junior Soccer Club, Minister of Sport and Recreation Hugh Delahunty said the club was one of several to benefit from the latest round of funding.

"As elite clubs and international competitions wrap up their seasons, the Victorian Government is proud to ramp up its support for soccer at a grass roots level," Delahunty said. "This funding boost will help local soccer clubs like Boronia accommodate the growing numbers of community members keen to pick up where their heroes have left off and get out on to their local parks, join a club and have a kick.

Delahunty said the Victorian Government's $645,000 boost is on top of a community benefit package recently announced as part of the international friendly between Serbia and the Socceroos at Etihad Stadium on June 7.

"The initiative will be delivered through Football Federation Victoria and will build on an existing grassroots football program aimed at increasing support for volunteers and creating more coaching and officiating opportunities."

Most of the $645,000 is going to lighting projects and the other key issue is access to pitches and maximising the use of the pitches by improving the quality which would then increase usage. Synthetic pitches extract 50 hours per week compared to 20 hours for a turf pitch.

The $3.8 million World Game project is a third of the way through and whilst this is positive news, the obvious question the Victorian football community is asking is, "Is this enough?" It is no secret soccer is rapidly growing, but an independent survey conducted by Sports Business Partners and commissioned by the FFV revealed that over 5000 players were turned away from clubs across Victoria in 2010.

With several clubs bursting at the seams, it is vital that facilities match the demand. There is also a 40 per cent growth in female participation following the trend in the USA over the last 10 years. Recently elected Football Federation Victoria (FFV) president Nick Monteleone stressed the challenges ahead.

"We've been on an upward spiral the last four years so it's important to continue that. But it's also very important to put energy and resources into coaching and referee development as well."

The State Government is keen to work with local government for access to facilities and with the Football Federations to deliver these promises. Regarding elite players Victoria has also found it very challenging to produce the next Mark Viduka. Victorian Premier Ted Ballieu is known to be very keen to have more Victorians in our national sides and in elite representative squads such as the AIS for youth players. In the last few years Victorian success has been poor in these areas and it is strictly not good enough for the sports capital of Australia. It is now up to the clubs individually and collectively to ensure and monitor the FFV is engaging and pushing the rights of our game in a strategic, politically effective manner as there is an extremely competitive fight for the resource dollar with so many competing codes. Demand from football clubs, private academies, schools and the general public have our facilities stretched to the limit.

The days of grabbing your mates and rolling up to parks for a kick at any time are over unfortunately. We didn't know what we had back in the good old days.