KEY POINTS:
Name: Sean Douglas
Age: 35
Role: Director of Football, Auckland Football Federation
Working hours: Weekends and evenings are required at times as well as travel around New Zealand
Employer: Auckland Football Federation
Base salary: $55k to $65k
Ideal qualifications: Would be in management and sport coaching/development, specifically youth development
Career prospects: Development/grassroots or high-performance role with a national sporting organisation, professional club, or confederation such as Oceania or Asia
Describe what you do.
Auckland Football Federation (also known as Soccer2) is the governing body for football in Auckland City, Manukau City, Papakura and Franklin. We administer the game on behalf of 31 clubs and around 20,000 players. I'm in charge of player and coach development. We also run grassroots and coaching programmes throughout the year.
On the coach education side, we run the first three levels of the NZ Football Coach Education Scheme. I'm also involved with the NZ Football Coach Development Advisory Group which is responsible for keeping our coaching qualifications up to world standards.
Your history?
My educational background is in finance. as I hold a BCom/BSc from Auckland University, and a postgrad diploma from the Australian Securities Institute.
While this helps with planning and admin work, a large part of my knowledge for this role comes from my playing background. I spent 10 years playing professionally in places such as Singapore, Denmark and Australia. While in Australia I commenced my coaching qualifications, which I completed in New Zealand.
How many people play soccer in New Zealand?
There are approximately 130,000 registered players in NZ, but this does not include schools, futsal, business house, ethnic leagues, Sunday leagues etc. The figure is probably closer to 200,000.
It's typically said that we are the biggest sport up to 14 or 15 years of age.
Is there an ideal age to learn soccer skills?
The optimal window of trainability for movement and co-ordination ends at around 13 years old. So our focus is on the "golden age of learning" between 8 and 12, when players' physical and cognitive attributes are at a stage that allows them to learn rapidly.
Before this period, we encourage clubs, coaches and players to focus on general movement and co-ordination exercises alongside fun football games. Technique-specific training shouldn't start until 7 or 8 years of age. The kids aren't ready for it.
Is it hard to retain young players?
We have a major drop-off around the high school years. Players become aware of social circles, take on part-time work, focus on school work. Also, when players finish school, they don't have links back to the local clubs and tend to fall away from the game.
We're looking at a number of projects to retain players, including introducing futsal (a five-aside indoor version of the game) with music into schools. Clubs would build links with schools to make the transition back to clubs easier.
How come we call it soccer in New Zealand when most of the world calls it football?
I have no idea! New Zealand, Australia and the US are the only countries that call the game soccer although there is a concerted effort in Australia and NZ to start referring to the game as football.
Why is your job important?
We are dealing with the youth of New Zealand. All players need improvement, whether they are at the elite level, or just the social level.
To achieve this, we need to train and educate coaches and parents, and ensure our competition structures are age-appropriate.
Most rewarding part of the job?
Being involved in the game I love every single day.
Worst part?
Dealing with rep selections and the inevitable complaints this brings from parents.
Will we play in the World Cup again?
I truly believe we can make another World Cup. We may need to wait for the next generation to come through the new structures we are putting in place, but it will happen.
What is on your agenda?
The next 12 months will see the start of our new three-year Technical Development Plan to develop the structure and raise the level of technical delivery at our clubs.
I'll also be part of a group developing the new NZ Football Coach Education scheme.
Advice to someone wanting to do same thing?
I came to the role through my playing background, but the other way is through a sporting degree.
donna.mcintyre@xtra.co.nz
