Page MP Janelle Saffin has welcomed news that Football Federation Australia and Northern NSW Football are financially backing a feasibility study into locating an Asia Pacific Football Institute in the Northern Rivers.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Northern NSW Football (NNSWF) have agreed in principle to provide a combined $40,000 towards the study, adding to $50,000 already committed by project’s facilitators, Southern Cross University.

Ms Saffin said so many dynamic people from the worlds of football, academia and her own sphere of influence – politics – were working enthusiastically towards an institute which would grow the game in Northern NSW, Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

FFA’s Sydney-based Head of Game Development Matt Bulkeley and NNSWF’s Newcastle-based Chief Executive Officer David Eland have told Ms Saffin their organisations feel the project had huge potential benefits for football, one of the fastest growing sports in the world.

These officials were particularly impressed that the concept of accommodating, educating and training future elite players, coaches and administrators, had been embraced by a regional university with established links to the Asia Pacific, and that it had Federal, State and Local government support.

 Ms Saffin said once a Heads of Agreement and terms of reference were signed off on, the study would focus national attention on what a working party was trying to achieve for emerging soccer nations within the 46-member Asian Football Confederation and the Pacific Islands.

“Southern Cross University has commissioned its Head of Sports Business Unit, Graduate College of Management, Dr Dave Arthur, to lead the study, and he will report back to a project committee, chaired by myself,” she said.

“Other key members of that committee are SBS football commentator Craig Foster, who had the original vision for an institute; SCU’s Executive Director (Corporate Services) Malcolm Marshall; and Football Far North Coast General Manager Steve Mackney, whose local knowledge and professionalism have been invaluable.

“I know from our meetings with SCU Chancellor, John Dowd, AO QC, that he is very committed to the project as well.”

Wednesday, October 14, 2009.