Youth Football, How expensive is it where you are?

I've Spent a couple of thousand bucks over the past year for my kids to play.  My 12 year old daughter is a striker.  She can run like the wind and scores bags of goals.  My son is 9 years old.  Runs like a truck stuck in mud but reads the game well, can play in any position.

This past weekend we were having some people over for some swimming and the adults having some time to kick back.  Friends of ours got an email that their daughter was just promoted to the U12 National team(US).  We are all very excited for her .  Of course it's a great opportunity.

The cost however is something to think about.  Tournaments that she will play in are all over the US.  There is also International tournaments that she'll be
playing in.  Driving 5 days for a child to play in a tournament, or airfare for the same trip is expensive.  If it were a one time thing that is a different matter.  This is nearly twice a month that the parents and children have to try to travel thousands of miles to play in tournaments.

My daughter will never reach that level but my son is very close to it.  He just recently took part in a trial and we were put on standby.  He is only one slot away from selection.  We (my wife and I ) figured out it would cost about $60,000 per year to have a place in the National team program. 

How does it work where you folks are?  We don't have anywhere near the amount of clubs here.

I'm a youth coach at a Dutch club in the 3rd division of my country, we have more than 1000 players and a pretty good academy and are affiliated with Dutch eredivisie club AZ Alkmaar. The contribution here starts at 128 euros a year for 7/8 year olds upto 180 euros a year for 17/18 year olds. I'd say that's a fairly normal contribution here for a big well organised club, but it can be quite a bit less for smaller clubs. We're even providing kits for our youth nowadays for 12 euros a year, so only need to buy shoes. Ofcourse the 2 divisions above us are professional and it costs nothing at all for youth to play at those clubs.

As far as youth national teams go here, it's all free here, all paid for. That includes international tournaments too. Ofcourse you normally only get called up if you play at a professional club here, which basically means in that situation it costs nothing to play for the club and national team. It's a case of the club and the Dutch football association carrying the costs, investing in your future.

Your story is just shocking to me though, and shows very clearly what is wrong with the sport in your country. Ofcourse your football landscape is alot different, as you say you don't have many clubs. The club I coach at is situated in a small town, and there's 18 other clubs in just a 3 mile radius.

Also, something I wondered. The clubs there, are they like proper clubs or just academies? Because alot of players here at clubs are adults. My club has 18 adult teams, the first team plays in the 3rd division, the others lower. Ofcourse some of them are what we call beer teams.