Bravo to the City Football Group, firstly. Amid the announcement of its investment in Melbourne Heart, the hope was it would invest heavily in infrastructure as it has done elsewhere, and it has been true to its word.

So far, so good. City have put every other club on notice as to the type of investment required to build solid foundations for the future and, particularly, the importance and value of a football specific training venue.

This has been a long, long time coming. City's staff are now the envy of the A-League in being able to turn up every day to a centre in which every detail is organised specifically for football. From the changing rooms, to the physical preparation areas, and the quality and care taken of the pitches themselves.

Every detail screams quality, high standards and huge expectations, exactly as it should be.

For a sport that has, traditionally, often had to utilise multi-sport facilities, this trend is an extremely welcome and valuable one to further build a culture of excellence, and specificity in football. Football only. Not multi-sport.

And the benefits for the community are immense. Having partnered with La Trobe University, students of many disciplines can participate, research and integrate into the centre to increase the speed of learning and create a future workforce for the game.

Now, if City provide a youth development pathway free of charge, as is the case in Manchester where they're based, they will fundamentally change the entire industry.

They will have the pick of the best young players, will create a production line of international talent that is exportable, and ultimately the centre will pay for itself. With two or three young Australians stepping up to the Manchester City first team in future years, which is only a matter of time, the club will save tens of millions in transfer fees, having also created a stream of quality players for the Melbourne City first team.

And at last put Australia in line with our European competitors by alleviating the financial burden on parents of talented young players.

When this happens, ladies and gentlemen, football's future is accelerated a thousand fold for two reasons, our competitiveness viz other sporting alternatives is maximised and, given our incredible international advantages such as the opportunity to win an Asian Cup or a World Cup, or play in Europe or even China like Timmy, there really should be no competition for suitable athletic talent.

Secondly, our quality of production increases dramatically because cost is no longer a factor, and the hundreds of thousands of kids that can't afford expensive academies for extra training all of a sudden receive outstanding education with no financial barriers.

This is our nirvana as a game. For money to play no part in the identification and education of talents.

I love City's investment, but if they take this additional step they will force critically important change that we so desperately need.

These types of training centres provide immense service to the broader community, such as three fields being available at City's Academy to the public, but also the availability of new facilities and additional services such as medical and fitness related.

Which is why the FFA, along with every A-League club, is battering the federal government's door down. We are also in dire need of a national football centre for coach education and national team preparation, which the federal government should certainly be overwhelmingly attuned to supporting, following the impact Australia's Asian Cup hosting and participation demonstrated.

AFL clubs, in particular, have received hundreds of millions of dollars for high-performance centres, and yet the latest statistics say that football's participation rate is many times larger, and we're further exploding off the back of a World Cup and Asian Cup year.

Football is creaking under the weight of numbers and desperately in need of training centres to alleviate the strain, and collaborations between the A-League and community serve many purposes, not least bringing everyone closer to their professional club.

Mariners have a centre, Sydney FC is in the throes of developing one, as is Perth Glory.  FNSW and Northern NSW Football federations now have impressive facilities consistent with their status and others will follow suit.

And as for City themselves. Go one step further, guys. Change the youth development economic model. You know it makes perfect financial sense.