FFA Centre of Excellence

The Australian Institute of Sport - Football (soccer) program is run by the Australian Institute of Sport, in Canberra, for Australian youth footballers. The Australian Institute of Sport runs this program for both men and women. The men's program was one of the eight founding sports of the AIS in 1981, with the women's program being added in 1998.

The AIS football program is fully funded by the Australian Federal Government, through the Australian Sports Commission: in 2005-2006 this funding amounted to $1.115 million Australian dollars. [1]

The stated aim of the men's program is to "identify and develop players for the national under-20 youth team and to develop coaches through the Scholarship Coaching scheme" [2], whilst the women's program was originally an Olympic Athlete Program initiative. The men's program has previously entered a team in the New South Wales Premier League competition (in 2005).

Following the decision of several football graduates to represent other countries at national level (primarily Croatia), the AIS implemented contracts whereby the cost of the scholarship will have to be repaid by any graduate that goes on to play football representing a different country (i.e. not Australia) [3]. This only applies to international representative competition; it is taken for granted that many players will play their club football in Europe.

Past Players

N.B. This is not an exhaustive list.

All Australian internationals unless otherwise noted. Dates indicate years of study at AIS. Club teams current as of 2006.

• John Aloisi (1992-1993) - Deportivo Alavés
• Mark Bresciano (1997) - Palermo
• Brett Emerton (1995-1996) - Blackburn Rovers
• Ivan Ergic - FC Basel and Serbia
• Frank Farina - Australian international and ex-manager of the Australian national team.
• Hayden Foxe - Australian international
• Vince Grella (1996-1997) - Parma
• Lucas Neill (1994-1995) - Blackburn Rovers
• Ljubo Milicevic - FC Thun
• Craig Moore - Newcastle United
• Kevin Muscat - Melbourne Victory
• Anthony Seric - Panathinaikos and Croatia
• Josip Simunic - Hertha Berlin and Croatia
• Josip Skoko - (1992-1993) Wigan Athletic
• Mile Sterjovski - FC Basel
• Mark Viduka (1992-1993) - Middlesbrough
• Luke Wilkshire - Bristol City
• Ned Zelic - Newcastle United Jets

Trivia

Of the 23 players selected in the Australian squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 12 (or 52%) were former AIS football scholarship holders. These players were; John Aloisi, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Vince Grella, Josh Kennedy, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neill, Josip Skoko, Mile Sterjovski, Mark Viduka and Luke Wilkshire. [4]

A further 3 AIS graduates represented non-Australian nations at the 2006 World Cup; Anthony Seric and Josip Simunic represented Croatia, while Ivan Ergic represented Serbia & Montenegro in its final competition before splitting into separate teams.

External links

• Australian Institute of Sport - Football (soccer) Official Site at the AIS.