"The cornerstone of Japan's success can be traced to closing the gap at the grassroots level between the best and least developed players. By doing so, the top players are continually challenged to improve, which raises the overall standard of play. Once this gap is minimised, the elite player pool expands exponentially." In this in-depth long read, Front Page Football's Ben Horvath suggests that adopting some of Japan's successful strategies would improve the Australian football landscape.
The Socceroos last faced Japan in October, drawing 1-1 in Saitama. (Image: Aleksandar Jason/Subway Socceroos)
The two major football stories in Australia this year will undoubtedly be the Socceroos' quest for World Cup qualification and the commencement of the long-awaited National Second Tier, which we now know will be known as the Australian Championship.
After patchy performances in 2024, the Socceroos somehow head into their March and June fixtures with direct World Cup qualification still very much in their own hands. The much-anticipated Australian Championship will kick off on October 10th, after the eight NPL seasons across the country are completed, albeit in a compromised 'Champions League' model rather than the preferred home and away league set-up.
Whether Tony Popovic's Socceroos hold onto the second direct qualifying spot behind runaway leaders Japan, or we sneak in via the playoffs again, or worse, we fail to qualify for USA 2026 altogether, Australian football can learn much from Japan's rise.
We have adopted English and Dutch methodology in the past. It is time we looked towards Asia's best and integrated some of their proven strategies into our footballing landscape.
Japan currently sits unchallenged at the top of our Group C in the third round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers with 16 points, 22 goals scored, and only two conceded. The Samurai Blue are well on their way to winning our 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying group and securing their eighth direct qualification in a row with style and confidence.
The Socceroos, in comparison, are sitting precariously in second spot on seven points from six games, one point ahead of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and China with four games remaining.
Japanese football has progressed to the point where they outplayed and defeated European superpowers Spain and Germany in Qatar in 2022. Yet, it wasn’t that long ago Japan genuinely feared facing the Socceroos.
In 2006, the Socceroos came from behind to defeat Japan 3-1, our infamous first-ever World Cup victory in Kaiserslautern. At the time, our stocks were at an all-time high.
Our "Golden Generation" of 2006 boasted eight English Premier League players. The remaining squad members played in the Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Dutch Eredivisie, and elsewhere in Europe. The Golden Generation consisted of extremely technically proficient players, and many had European migrant parents who nurtured them in their grassroots years.
Our very own footballing godfather, Johnny Warren, said, "Success in football originates from parental involvement, mums and dads introducing kids to football, teaching them in the backyard or park and taking them to games. Success and football culture are built discussing football around the dinner table and sitting around the TV watching football together. Mark Viduka owes more to his dad and his early years at Melbourne Knights than anyone else."
The godfather of Australian football, Johnny Warren, was a firm believer in the notion that football starts at home. (Image: Johnny Warren Football Foundation Facebook)
A unique Australian footballing culture with European roots was installed at the grassroots level across the parks and backyards of suburban Australia in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, courtesy of thousands of football-obsessed first-generation migrant parents just like Viduka's.
When the so-called "old soccer", the National Soccer League, died in 2004, first-generation European migrant parents were starting to get older and very much assimilated into traditional Australian culture. Second-generation migrant children had grown into adult parents. Only a minor percentage of them maintained backyard and park football training traditions when the NSL and its migrant clubs were replaced by so-called "new football" in the form of the new A-League franchise clubs.
By 2014, the A-League was a decade old and flying, with marquee signings like Alessandro Del Piero, Emile Heskey, and Shinji Ono bringing flair and prestige to the league. The Popovic-led Western Sydney Wanderers won the Asian Champions League. In 2015, Ange Postecoglou's Socceroos were officially crowned kings of Asia.
The move from Oceania to the Asian Football Confederation delivered four successive World Cup appearances, replacing 32 years of failure between the infamous Rale Rasic-led 1974 qualification and Hiddink's 2006 Golden Generation breakthrough.
However, only Pim Verbeek's 2010 campaign directly following Hiddink's 2006 success was smooth sailing. Asian football has risen rapidly since the turn of the century, and Japan is clearly at the forefront.
Our recent record versus Japan is poor. We have only won twice in 18 years. The last time Australia beat Japan was at the MCG in 2009, when Tim Cahill scored two goals in the final game of the 2010 World Cup qualification cycle that ensured we topped the group ahead of the Samurai Blue by five points. Since then, Japan has enjoyed six wins, and the two sides have played out four more draws across 10 matches.
The Socceroos have had to endure the rigorous inter-confederation play-off pathway to qualify for the World Cup twice in a row now, and this current qualification group looks like it will go down to the wire.
The AFC is an ultra-competitive confederation now, even though there are now eight direct spots up for grabs and a further opportunity to qualify via the inter-confederation play-off.
The Socceroos have only just snuck into the top eight at the most recent Asian Cups, being eliminated at the quarter-final stage on both occasions. We are now ranked 12th as a nation in the AFC club competitions ranking; our sole entrant in this year's Asian Champions League Elite, the Central Coast Mariners, will likely finish bottom out of 12 teams in Group A with only one point thus far.
So, what has happened, and what can Australian football learn from Japan?
Upon reading 'Football Starts at Home' by Tom Byer, the American football coach based in Japan, it's apparent that the country's incredible transformation from grassroots development to the success of its national teams didn't happen overnight. It took decades of dedicated effort.
In 1993, the same year the J-League was launched, Japan simultaneously shifted its focus to individual technical skill development. Byer envisioned and helped deliver a strategy that prioritised the individual first and the team second.
Byer encouraged Japan to change its thinking regarding player development. He helped shift focus to the entry level more than the elite level and understood most of the work is done earlier than later.
In countries with a strong football culture, children are exposed to a ball much earlier than most others. By understanding this, you can create a better platform for developing players because your baseline of individual technical skills is so good. This results in creating a massive elite player pool from which to select.
Football Australia should start from the bottom and work their way up if we want to make a difference in player development. Educate parents, focus on individual technical skills, and create a strong foundation for success.
Now, 31 years later, the results speak for themselves. Japanese players are recognised for their exceptional technical ability, with an ever-growing number competing in Europe's top five leagues. Japan has firmly established itself as a hotbed of player development.
Critically, the cornerstone of Japan's success can be traced to closing the gap at the grassroots level between the best and least developed players. By doing so, the top players are continually challenged to improve, which raises the overall standard of play. Once this gap is minimised, the elite player pool expands exponentially.
Alternatively, Australia has been focusing on improving our elite player development pathways. But the foundation at the base of the Australian pyramid, grassroots football, requires much urgent attention, funding, and resources.
Football Australia and, more recently, the state federations have funded and resourced expansive MiniRoos programs targeting entry-level 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-olds. But in truth, MiniRoos programs place a massive emphasis on encouraging entry-level fun and growth in participation, which has its place. But Byer's Japanese programs targeting 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-olds specifically focused on ball mastery and building football culture in a critical age demographic.
READ MORE ON FPF
BIG NST NEWS: The Australian Championship: Football Australia announce second tier name and branding
ADELAIDE UNITED: "A special thing" - Bart Vriends portrays love for Australian lifestyle in documentary
Australian football's governing bodies could be accused of mistakenly believing that transformative change only occurs upwards at the elite level from the under-nine age group. Byer argues that the most crucial development happens at the entry-level. His analogy is simple:
"It's akin to musicians first mastering scales and notes before playing songs in a band or children learning basic arithmetic before tackling complex equations."
In my experience coaching at grassroots-level clubs and within the MiniRoos program, I noticed that most children in Australia begin playing football without any real solid technical foundation. Speed, size, and physicality are the current cultural prerequisites to gaining selection in most grassroots youth grading days in the Australian football landscape. This trend needs to change immediately.
Grassroots results count for little. While a few kids may naturally develop technically, most in our results-driven culture do not.
Byer says: "What truly sets nations apart in football is culture—a point often misunderstood. If I had to distil it into an elevator pitch, I'd say this: to become a strong footballing nation, create an army of 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-old boys and girls skilled in ball mastery and simply let them play. While coaches are essential, the foundation of technical skill development begins at home, with parents playing the most critical role."
In Australia, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Football Australia, to their credit, launched Project 22 and later the Skill Acquisition Phase (SAP), which this year has been rebadged as the Junior Development League (JDL).
These initiatives were Football Australia's youth equivalent of ball mastery programs whereby all teams train at least thrice weekly and focus on ball work and individual technique. It has lifted the technical levels of under 9 to 12-year-olds across Australia, especially the more elite players exposed to the leading programs.
There's been a general uptick in the technical standards of our younger players to the point where many experienced Australian youth coaches believe the top percentage of our elite 12 and 13-year-old kids can compete with their European counterparts. However, there is a concerning drop-off once our boys hit the 14–18-year age bracket.
Young teenagers in the NPL youth system, where most of our elite youngsters play, aren't exposed to regular cross-border continental competitions like the elite youth in Europe due to geographic isolation.
Due to geographical isolation, most of our teenagers aren't exposed to regular high-level competitive football, and paid academy overseas trips are only short-term snapshots. A photo from a game between the Australian Youth Football Institute under 13s and Stoke City Academy under 13s. (Image: Ben Horvath)
Circumstances have improved for the dozens of elite teenagers exposed to senior A-Leagues football in recent years. However, the focus of Byer’s philosophy trumpets the importance of ensuring 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-old kids are developed to be technically proficient with the ball.
I would argue this is an age group left neglected in Australia unless skilled, cultured, football-loving parents coach them, they are enrolled into the handful of quality paid academies, or luck into a skilled parent coaching them at grassroots levels.
As Byer and Japan’s example points out, this is a critical age where technical coaches and development are required. In Australia, “get rid of it” is sadly still the uncultured phraseology I hear shouted by parents most on the sidelines at grassroots games and even into NPL youth football. Often, youth coaches put the team first in Australia; it’s part of our sporting DNA.
Team structures and systems with a focus on pressing from the front and playing out from the back (often with players not technically proficient enough to manage it successfully) are usually the cornerstones of youth coaching philosophies in SAP and NPL youth football, and sadly, even in the grassroots years of under 5s, 6s, 7s, and 8s. It’s ridiculously inappropriate coaching for that age level.
Coaching at the MiniRoos and SAP level remains a major issue in Australian football. (Image: Football Australia/Tiffany Williams)
Shouting, “Release the ball quicker”, or telling 6, 7, 8, or even 10-year-old kids to press higher, making them run their hearts out off the ball, is far from ideal development in footballing or cultural terms. Winning games and trophies during those early development years doesn’t contribute to learning as much as letting young players express themselves freely, making mistakes taking on players, or trying to complete visionary passes between the lines.
We are not developing enough strikers, attacking midfielders, ball-playing midfielders, or game-breakers domestically. The Nicky Carle's, Tommy Rogic's, Mark Viduka's, Ned Zelic's, Paul Okon's, or Jason Culina's are just not coming off the Australian youth production line in abundance of late.
Ange Postecoglou single-handedly changed the culture of Australian domestic senior men's football when he took the reins at Brisbane Roar back in 2009 with his technical, possession-based, ball-playing philosophy. Ange proved cultural change can be implemented here in senior football.
Byer rolled out his ball mastery philosophy in Japan to very young children. His football philosophy and culture can be prioritised, funded, and rolled out across the board in Australian grassroots football by our governing bodies; they can educate local clubs so that parents adopt the cultural shift, and then we too will be a footballing powerhouse in the decades to come.
Of course, limiting the focus to only 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-olds in isolation won't be enough. Byer's cultural and philosophical reforms would have to be made in conjunction with a few other key tweaks, as in Japan. His grassroots philosophy ran simultaneously with the launch of the J-League in 1993.
In 30 years, the J-League has grown into a three-tier connected pyramid with almost 60 professional clubs, promotion, relegation, and all the excitement, development, and transfer generating interest and football economy that comes with it.
I am not suggesting that we can completely copy Japan’s blueprint because Australian football has its very own unique cultural, geographical, population, and economic challenges. However, we could benefit from adopting some key cultural and philosophical shifts.
Japanese football had to overcome huge issues initially, too. Baseball was, and still is, Japan’s number one sport. Japanese footballers struggled with the size and physicality of other more established football countries for years in the 1990s and early 2000s, including Australia. Finishing and a lack of goal-scoring strikers was often a massive issue in the formative years of the J-League and carried over into the Japanese national team.
However, the Japanese FA stayed committed to investing in the kids and the connected J-Leagues pyramid. After many initial teething problems, they are now reaping the results.
Investment is key!
Football is the number one sport in 99% of all AFC nations. The governments of all the current top 20 countries in Asia invest hundreds of millions more dollars in football than the Australian Government does, and in some instances, billions more.
Most Australian football fans will never forget the outrage when the joint Australian Government/Frank Lowy-led bid to host the 2022 World Cup allocated a paltry $40 million towards bidding to stage the biggest show on earth. Meanwhile, the Qatar government spent $220 billion to stage the 2022 World Cup.
The Australian Government announced in December 2024 that it would contribute $600 million to a new Papua New Guinea franchise in the NRL, and no one batted an eyelid.
Here in lies a cultural problem Australian football-loving voters need to address. Football is by far the biggest sport for participation in Australia. Yet, as an example, Football Australia only receives a $15 million contribution from the federal government to host the AFC Women's Asian Cup next year. Football Australia recently celebrated a mere $6,319,500 million allocation via the "Win Well" and "Play Well" funding streams for the period 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2026, despite football's colossal participation rates and the apparent success of all the metrics surrounding the recent Women's World Cup.
Football's paltry government funding is unfair and a massive, missed opportunity politically. Before his passing in 2004, Johnny Warren said Australia must engage its football neighbours in Asia, where huge opportunities exist. There are tremendous economies and populations which are devoted to the sport of football. Australia wants and needs more trade with Asia. Yet, we foolishly ignore the most effective trade show of all: international football. Within the full range of Australia's diplomatic missions, football should have primacy; football registers on the radar screens of the mass markets to which Australia needs access.
Football fans have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of growth, reform, and excitement surrounding the A-Leagues as it celebrates its 20th anniversary in season 2024/25.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Football was the first sport in Australia to establish a national domestic competition, the Phillips National Soccer League, in 1977. Alarmingly, two decades into the life of the A-Leagues, the concerns raised by fans in recent years are almost identical to those raised pre-millennium.
The two most common concerns then, like now, centred around economic sustainability, the lack of a genuinely connected pyramid, and the exciting, organic storylines promotion and relegation provides.
In the 1990s, the underpinning but unconnected state leagues were the equivalent of the NPL competitions we see now. In this 20th-anniversary season, the A-League Men, like the NSL, risks becoming stale.
Australian football fans have been crying out for a national second division, a genuinely connected pyramid complete with promotion, relegation, and the elimination of a salary cap. Those three crucial football characteristics distinguish the sport from all others globally. Yet, strangely, Australian football's administrators have historically ignored the three above, which should be viewed as non-negotiables.
In the international bestseller Soccernomics, a statistical study by Stephen Dobson and John Goddard, showed that promotion and relegation battles increase attendance and excitement:
"Matches involving teams trying to avoid relegation led to attendance increases. Trying to qualify for continental competitions also gives meaning to matches. There are a lot of different tussles that go on in connected pyramids whether you're at the top, in the middle or at the bottom."
About salary caps, they said it is unclear how a more balanced league could create more significance.
The challenge for professional football in Australia has always been the struggle to connect professional football to the broader player base. The way the Japanese prioritised kids first clearly worked. The way Japan ensured that no talented player should be left behind guaranteed a pipeline of technically developed youth players and built a new footballing culture from the get-go.
If we, too, prioritise and connect 5, 6, 7, and 8-year-old kids and ensure every club in Australia can play at the professional apex, you immediately build culture. Everyone feels a part of the game. Supporters hold onto the hope that their team could one day play in the top league. Teams look up and down the league tables passionately regarding promotion and relegation possibilities. Crowds and ratings increase with interest, competitive standards increase organically, and opportunities arise for more players, clubs, and income streams because the football economy slowly grows.
I finish with a quote from Byer:
"Understanding a country's football success requires a deep understanding of the foundation that the professional game is built upon. Without strong foundations, success is impossible. Football starts at home is a truth. Money alone cannot buy football success. Remember, a strategy in the absence of culture gets you nowhere."
Comentarios