“Practice must be purposeful, otherwise it is useless” British Olympian Matthew Syed articulates this view in his excellent talent development book Bounce.

The New Zealand Football (NZF) eligibility debate has centred primarily on the disqualification of New Zealand from the Rio de Janiero Olympics. However, a longer term consideration is how this ruling will impact on talent development in New Zealand.

Top class football is fantastic but every team needs to have battle-hardened defenders. Right now, the best defenders (and attackers for that matter) are from South America.

While resources help, a professional attitude costs nothing. Empoli FC is a wonderful example of this mindset.  Despite being located in a city of just 40,000 people, 11 home grown players were in Empoli’s Serie A squad during the recently contested 2014 / 2015 season.

Coaches must be motivated to learn  “An intelligent coach learns from all countries.” Those seven words from Mirko Mazzantini, coach of the ACF Fiorentina U-14 squad, reinforce the value of constant learning to ensure the very best coaching experience for youth players.

Play is the source of creativity. Unstructured play is a missing element in the quest to develop creative players in New Zealand.