Many are willing to pay the fees, amid aspirations to higher levels of competition, excellence, achievement and status. Some, though, are concerned about where the money is going and how far prices will rise in future.

Various National Premier League [NPL] club insiders believe some youth fees are being used towards paying first grade players at some clubs to varying degrees.

Northern NSW Football has warned clubs that youth fees cannot be used to pay senior players.

The clubs aim to cover player payments for first graders with sponsorship from companies and benefactors, along with gate receipts and canteen revenue.

First-grade players can generally earn payments per match of about $200 to $250 (rookies) and $350 to $500 (experienced). Top players stepping down from the A-League can earn about $1000 to $1500 a match. Some suspect the fees for the ex-pros are rising higher.

Team budgets for player payments can generally run from about $55,000 to $180,000 a season.

There is also a push to pay senior female players, with the inaugural season of the Northern NSW National Premier Leagues Women (NPLW) to begin next month.

Northern NSW Football chief executive David Eland said "players can be paid, but they have to be on a professional contract".

"There are no professional contracts within our competitions - our NPL and NPLW are amateur competitions," Mr Eland said.

"There's an amount of up to $110 a week where clubs can reimburse players for expenses incurred whilst playing. But strictly, by the National Registration Regulations, we don't have any professional players."

Asked if the clubs could be semi-professional, Mr Eland said: "No, there's no such thing".

Mr Eland said consultation was occurring with clubs to introduce professional contracts. This is linked to plans for the top senior league to have "professional status". "That is aligned to the A-League, domestic calendar and has big implications for our competitions."

As for youth fees, Mr Eland encouraged parents to ask clubs what they include. "Clubs are run by hardworking volunteers and they put a lot of work in to determine the fees. It's not up to us to micromanage the clubs."

He said the NPL youth fees "vary significantly" from club to club because they were run differently. The junior and youth fees range from about $1000 to $2000 a season, depending on the club.

Adamstown Rosebud secretary Rick Naylor said he was opposed to youth payments being used to pay seniors.

"Youth fees should cover the cost of youth football. They shouldn't be subsidising the expenses a club incurs elsewhere," Mr Naylor said.

"When we register our JDL [Junior Development League under 9s-12s] and youth players [under 13s-16s], we present the players and parents with a spreadsheet, showing them exactly where the money goes.

"The youth and JDL fees are quarantined from seniors."

Mr Naylor said Adamstown aimed to promote youth players through the ranks to first grade.

"We'd like to think that many of our first grade players are playing because they love playing football."

Broadmeadow Magic president Tony Temelkovski said "all fees collected from youth are pumped back into the youth".

"The criteria for kids playing at a higher level means there's a certain standard of coaching we need to provide at club level," he said.

"An average NPL youth coach spends 475 to 500 hours a year coaching the side. We run a 40-week program for our NPL youth."

Youth coaches can attract about $1500 to $4000 a season, depending how qualified they are.

Valentine secretary Melissa Larson said coach fees can work out to "$3.20 an hour". "They're doing it for the love of the game," she said.

Ms Larson said her club's junior, youth and community fees weren't used for first-grade costs, adding "we're transparent with our fees".

Part of the issue with costs is that the game is funded from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. Football Australia collects $14 from those under 18 and $33 from seniors through registration fees. Some of this money is used to pay for the Socceroos and Matildas.

Newcastle Football chairman Steve Cucumanovski said the high cost of fees comes down to a lack of money at the top of the game.

He said the rugby league and AFL grassroots were propped up with big TV revenues. Those codes also gain more crowd revenue.

Mr Temelkovski also highlighted this issue, saying this was partly why "our sport is pay to play".

"The hard thing is, the better your child is at playing the sport, the more you seem to have to pay. That's the reality," he said.

He believed the price of youth football was a worthy issue to discuss, but said "I don't think there's an easy answer". "Is there a ceiling there and when we hit that point what is the impact?"

He said it was worth comparing the price of football to other youth activities like dancing, ballet and swimming.

Charlestown Azzurri secretary Roger Steel believed the NPL youth fees "are higher than they should be".

"It's a lot of money for kids' sport, but there are all sorts of costs like competition and refereeing fees that have to be distributed among players," Mr Steel said.

There are fewer volunteers available nowadays, so clubs had to pay people to do jobs. Clubs in Sydney or Melbourne are charging youth fees of $2500 to $3000, but "they have requirements that aren't imposed on us yet, like having full-time technical directors".

He said a lot of parents see their kids "as a future champion and are willing to pay whatever it takes".

As well as NPL fees, some parents pay for private training in Newcastle through programs run by the likes of former Jets player Jobe Wheelhouse and former Jets coach Clayton Zane.

"Parents are driven to help their child succeed at sport, but very few players end up making it to the top," Mr Steel said.

Mr Steel added that clubs know "it's not right" to use youth fees to pay seniors.

Maitland Magpies football manager Mick Mirisch said "from our perspective, no youth or JDL payments should cover any player payments for seniors".

"That's the way it should be. It's as simple as that," Mr Mirisch said.

A memo that Northern NSW Football sent to clubs in October said fees must reflect "actual expenses related to the player's participation in a competition".

The onus is on the clubs to satisfy the governing bodies that the fees are reasonable.

"Clubs are not permitted to 'bundle' other expenses [including player payments], which are not directly related to the player's participation in a competition."

Northern NSW Football has developed a budget template to help clubs "isolate expenses specifically related to the competition in which the player participates".

The memo acknowledged that the fees imposed by the vast majority of clubs were reasonable and "volunteers commit significant time to implementing a range of fundraising activities to keep their fees as low as possible".

Clubs can use the youth fees for coaching, playing strips, ground and facility maintenance, football equipment, competition and referee fees, field hire, administration and awards.

"Clubs need money to provide the football experience that parents are expecting. A kid playing NPL youth is a completely different experience to someone playing community football," Mr Eland said.

He added that some clubs have a lot more costs than others "when it comes to running facilities".

There are also community concerns that disadvantaged families cannot afford to pay the youth fees, but clubs and Northern NSW Football insist they do address this.

Macquarie Football Association general manager Warren Read urged players who leave premier league clubs to consider returning to community football to play for fun. Another concern among the footballing public is registration fees for community players. All-age players are being charged about $440 this season.

This includes, in one example, $157 to the club, $67 to the council for ground use, $133 to Northern NSW Football [the governing body], $50 to the zone association and $33 to Football Australia [the national body]. "The cost for a social game of football is getting out of control," one all-age player said. "We are losing young players."

In the Hunter, the average community registration fee is $165 (5-7s), $200 (8-11s), $255 (12-18s) and $360 (19+). Parents can use the $100 Active Kids voucher towards the fees. Mr Eland is confident that football "remains affordable and accessible for families".

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