In April, FFA announced that the Centre of Excellence (COE) in Canberra will close in August and the $1.6 million program will be replaced by player development systems led by Member Federation and A-League clubs.

At the time of the announcement, FFA CEO David Gallop said the governing body recourses could be better spent in a decentralised and expanded system.

When FourFourTwo spoke to Abrams before the decision was officially announced, he said the processes around youth devopment had been in a state of flux during the previous 12 months.

“There is a transition phase of moving away from a very selected centralised program to one that is more open,” he said.

“We started with a pilot high performance program at Westfield High so all these kinds of things are changing a little bit

“We have what we call talent hubs in Western Australia and a pilot project product where young NPL players age 13 to 15 who are affiliated with an NPL club, come in once or twice a week with the technical department of the states and get some extra training sessions and extra games and the pool of players becomes extended.

“Over the next two years there will be a lot of changes in this environment but at the end the outcome will be greater for Australia and that will be our objective and why we are doing it.”

During the announcement of the elite academy's closure, Gallop also noted that young players were choosing to stay with their local clubs, A-League academies and school’s programs rather than the COE.

Abrams also highlighted the choice that young players had in the current climate and the opportunities that existed.

“If you limit your access to a small number of players and at the same time have a lot players who are already in an academy environment and they don’t come to the Centre of Excellence then we miss out on a lot of players,” he said.

“It’s difficult for some of the parents and the players to make a choice because there is accessibility in their own environment to academies.

“Our A-League academies are only starting so it’s impossible to already have a professional quality level. But what we need to do is to create this quality environment in the A-League club environment and maybe some NPL clubs can do the same with their academies.

“Some of the NPL clubs can do it and can compete with A-League academies and also be on the same level. If NPL academies can have the standard of A-League academies then its accessible for a lot more players to be in a good environment.”

Photo: FFA