Australian Institute of Sport (Association Football Program)
 |
|
| Full name | FFA Centre of Excellence |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1981 |
| Dissolved | 2017 |
| Ground | Australian Institute of Sport |
| League |
National Youth League National Premier Leagues |
The FFA Centre of Excellence (formerly the Australian Institute of Sport Football Program) was a football talent identification and player development program run by Football Federation Australia (FFA) and was based at the Australian Institute of Sport, in Canberra. The Centre of Excellence ran this program for men: the program was one of the eight founding sports of the AIS in 1981. The FFA announced that the Centre would close at the end of 2017.
The AIS soccer program was funded by the Australian Federal Government, through the Australian Sports Commission. In 2005–2006 this funding amounted to A$1,115,000. The format involved 20 students per year selected for an initial period of 12 months training and study, with the additional option of a second year. The men's program was residential, while the women's was training camp-based. Students were generally 15–17 years old when selected and required to have current, or pending, Australian citizenship.
The original stated aim of the men's program was
"To identify and develop players for the national under-20 youth team and to develop coaches through the Scholarship Coaching scheme".
Following the decision of several soccer graduates to represent other countries at a senior national level (e.g. Josip Simunic), the AIS implemented contracts whereby the cost of the scholarship would later have to be repaid by any graduate who went on to play soccer at a senior level representing a country - other than Australia - in international competition.
AIS soccer has developed many players to represent Socceroos at the FIFA World Cup.
John Aloisi (1992), Marco Bresciano (1997), Brett Emerton (1995-1996), Joshua Kennedy (1998-1999), Mark Milligan (2002), Craig Moore (1992-1993), Lucas Neill (1994-1995), Josip Skoko (1992-1993), Mile Sterjovski (1996-1996), Mark Viduka (1992-1993) and Luke Wilkshire (1998), Josip Šimunić (1994-1996) for Croatia
...
Wikipedia