Former Brisbane coach Miron Bleiberg says wise heads must coach Australia’s best youth, not rookies
Former Brisbane Roar coach Miron Bleiberg says Australia’s youth soccer teams will continue to underperform on the world stage unless experienced coaches are appointed to lead them.
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Flamboyant former A-League and NSL coach Miron Bleiberg says Australia’s youth development was ruined once Football Federation Australia took on a failed Dutch system.
Bleiberg’s last professional coaching job was at the helm of the Las Vegas-style A-League club Gold Coast United in 2012 before walking away, at the time claiming he had been “stripped of his dignity” before the venture collapsed.
He had a stint in the Victorian NPL, coaching Oakleigh Cannons before ending his association with the game in 2015.
Born in Israel, the former backpacker is now fully immersed in a rich ‘Las Vegas’ lifestyle he says is thanks to Australian soccer and its contacts.
Bleiberg plays golf with SA’s pro golfing rising star Antonio Murdaca.
He is a member of the World Poker Tournament League, plays tennis regularly and takes long motorbike rides on weekends.
But watching Australia’s U17s perform at the recent FIFA U-17s World Cup in Brazil angered Bleiberg, and he blames FFA for the downfall of Australia’s underage national teams.
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“The Dutch came here and did the same mistakes as they did in Holland, that’s why Dutch soccer was in the doldrums for quite a while,’’ Bleiberg said.
“They started to employ ex-players with no senior coaching experience like Patrick Kluivert and Danny Blind, they were good players but (had) no experience as first grade coaches and they paid for it.
“The same thing happened with us, the young national teams were coached by very good players like Paul Okon, Tony Vidmar and Ufuk Talay but they didn’t have any senior coaching experience.
“I bet with you they would have been better young Socceroos coaches after they’ve coached in the A-League first and not vice versa.
Once you’ve coach senior players at a professional level you know what to look at in a player, you know what to demand.
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“I’m not attacking these men, I’m attacking the system.”
Bleiberg said his passion for the game had waned ending his 54-year association in 2015.
“I opened my eyes and realised how this game is such a cruel industry,’’ Bleiberg said.
“The flashbacks I have, real bad ones, is telling players they’re not good enough when they’re 17 or 18.
“Their parents think they have a David Beckham and then Miron Bleiberg says ‘the child isn’t good enough’; that still haunts me.”
Bleiberg believes jobs for underage national development teams, including member federations that have user pays national trainer centre teams, should go only to those who have had experience at coaching at the highest levels.
“I think Australian soccer will not recover until they get older heads,’’ Bleiberg said.
“We used to be a force to be reckoned with at all youth levels.
“Les Scheinflug and Raul Blanco and to a lesser extent Ange Postecoglou, he wasn’t as experienced at the time but at least he had coached at the highest level in the country before taking the teenagers.
“There is no secret in nurturing talent; just take a look at every other good development country and their best coaches at youth level all had experience first coaching men.”