The FFA Centre of Excellence (FFA CoE) is holding a camp this week ahead of a new scholarship intake cycle in 2016.
The camp, at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra from 15-17 December, is for invited players, as potential future scholarship holders who are born in 2000/01.
“We’ve worked with this age group a lot in 2015, through camps and also the 2015 AFF U-16 Championships and the 2016 AFC U-16 Championships Qualifiers.
“We were also paying close attention at the recent NTC Challenge in Canberra. This camp gives us an opportunity to have a closer look at a number of players, before we finalise the group for our 2016 intake,” said Peter de Roo, technical director of FFA CoE.
The main focus for the group will be preparing for the 2016 AFC U-16 Championships in Goa, India from 15 September-2 October 2016.
The top four teams from that tournament will qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India.
“Last intake we had 100% acceptance of scholarships. We’d hope to achieve the same rate of acceptance this time around.
“We as Technical Staff firmly believe it is the best place to be for the players’ development, on and off the field.
“We’ve seen it at the recent u-17 World Cup that for the players we bring in to the Joeys from outside of the FFA CoE program, it was a lot harder to adapt to the way we want to play," added de Roo.
In 2016, the FFA CoE will participate in the 2016 Capital Football NPL, and the 2016/17 Foxtel National Youth League Competitions.
The 2016 FFA CoE players will commence their scholarships in February 2016.