FFA Coaching Conference: NPL clubs should pay all coaches U12 - NPL but not players. Which club will lead?

The recent Coaching Conference in Canberra asked local National Premier League Clubs to refrain from paying players - and pay your coaches instead.

Coaches are undertaking expensive courses and give many hours of their time so kids and adults can play in the NPL.

But how many Coaches are being paid, at your Canberra club?

Already clubs around town are trying to poach players by offering payments or higher payments than their current club. Some have offered to double what a player is getting at his current club.

So where does the money come from for these NPL players? Gate money? Stop laughing!

Well if players were paid based on the crowd they pulled in no-one in Canberra would be paid.

An increasing source of revenue for the NPL clubs is their juniors. Different clubs charge different fees for U12 - U18. I wonder why?

No doubt some is siphoned off to pay their leading male players.

You wonder what amount of money is wasted on player wages across the men's premier league season.

And it is wasted as no sooner does a player bunker down at one club, he heads to a rival club for presumably more money.

Mike Charlesworth, owner of the Central Coast Mariners, has called for junior playing fees to be reduced. Canberra National Premier League Clubs by stopping player payments could show they were really interested in promoting and developing their club.

Imagine if any of our 8 Premier League clubs came out and said we'll pay all coaches but not our players.

What an interesting culture you could develop. And how you could take pressure off these NPL clubs in a financial sense.

Should anyone really be paying players to play in Canberra to play football?

Only Canberra United players should be paid and they regularly train 5 times a week and attract close to 1,000 people per game. Can any men's Premier League club match that?

What is the benefit to any club of paying players in Canberra? And which club(s) has a focus on coach and player development rather than win, by paying players, at all costs?