AT a time when the Socceroos are entitled to be feeling pretty proud of themselves, it's a shame the powers-that-be have been in such a rush to cash in on their team's World Cup heroics.
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The dust had barely settled on Australia's 2-1 loss to Argentina in the round-of-16 clash when coach Graham Arnold staked a claim for a taxpayer-funded handout.
"We need to spend money and get help from the government to put some money into the game to help develop kids," Arnold said at the post-match press conference.
"One thing I would really love to see before I finish up completely in football is the government build us a house.
"We don't have a home. We have been homeless since I have been involved for 37 years in the national teams.
"We need a home, a facility like ... the AIS [Australian Institute of Sport], something that the government can help fund for the development of the national teams but also for the good of Australian football."
Arnold's comments were followed a day or so later by similar sentiments from Danny Townsend, the CEO of Australian Professional Leagues, which runs the domestic competitions on behalf of Football Australia.
"What you're seeing now is players who have been in the A-League system from a young age are coming to the fore," Townsend said.
"Seeing the players represent our country on the biggest stage is really pleasing for our clubs.
"But we can't do that alone, we require support if we want the national team to improve from the round of 16 and go deeper into the tournament.
"We don't have the luxury that other codes have in a multi-billion dollar TV deal.
"We need public-private partnerships to drive it forward. As a sport we need to do a better job to ensure football has a seat at the table which is commensurate with our standing."
With regards to Arnold's request for a training base for our national teams, I have no problem with that.
It seems like every club in the NRL competition now has a Centre of Excellence, many of which have been built after receiving multi-million dollar government grants that cover at least 50 per cent of the cost of the facility. Fair's fair. If the round-ball code don't have such an amenity, then it's high time they did.
But as for using taxpayer dollars to help subsidise junior-development programs, I do have an issue with that.
The various junior soccer academies that have emerged over the past decade seem to be money-making enterprises, and it is a costly exercise for families of the children involved.
Would government funding reduce the financial burden on these families, or would it instead be used to create more paid coaching and administrative roles?
I wonder ...
To support its argument, Football Australia claimed that 65 per cent of the Socceroos' World Cup squad were developed by A-League academies.
Fair enough, but what role did these academies play in producing Scottish-born Socceroos Harry Souttar, Martin Boyle and Jason Cummings?
Souttar and Boyle were actually chosen to wear the green and gold before they had ever set foot in Australia.
Meanwhile, Australian- born 19-year-old Cristian Volpato - currently playing for Roma in Serie A - knocked back an offer from Arnold to represent his home country at the World Cup, presumably because he has aspirations to do so with Italy.
Would government funding have changed Volpato's allegiances? I'd be very surprised.
But perhaps what really undermines all this rattling of empty tins were Townsend's revelations this week about trying to sign superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to play in the A-League.
"We had interesting discussions, and there was genuine interest, but it's clear he has other priorities at this stage," Townsend told Nine newspapers.
Ronaldo, of course, is one of the highest-paid athletes of all time and, after his acrimonious departure from Manchester United, is reportedly weighing up a $313 million, two-and-a-half-year deal with a Saudi Arabian club.
If the Portuguese prima donna knocks that back, you can guarantee there will be other clubs lining up to offer him a fortune.
Football Australia are in no position to match the riches Ronaldo can secure elsewhere. But even to enter the conversation, they must have been willing to come up with an unprecedented, bank-breaking deal that would at least have tempted him.
And I guess that's the gist of this column.
How can Football Australia justify asking for government funding to help run their sport, when at the same time they were presumably quite happy to outlay a king's ransom to secure an individual who, throughout his career, has become notorious for looking after No.1?
Ronaldo might have helped put a few bums on seats, just as Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey did a decade or so ago.
But would one of the all-time greats have left a lasting legacy, or just a massive hole in a shoestring budget?
I guess we'll never know.
Suffice to say that, given their ambitious (delusional) bid to sign Ronaldo, it's a bit rich for Football Australia to be crying poor.
