SWINDON Town owner Clem Morfuni has revealed the club is trying to set up an academy in his home nation of Australia.

Morfuni – who took control of the Robins in July 2021 – believes there is plenty of untapped potential Down Under and is bringing Town’s head of academy football, Jamie Russell, over later this month in order to lay the groundwork for a potential feeder system into Swindon’s first team.

Speaking to Australian football podcast, ‘The Back Peg’, Town’s chairman discussed his journey from external sponsor all the way through to vice-chair and the ugly court battle to gain full control two years ago.

Later in the interview, Morfuni talked about his thoughts on Australian football and how Swindon can possibly take advantage of the lack of opportunities for talented teenagers on the other side of the world.

Morfuni said: “Swindon Town wants to set up an academy here in Australia because I think we’ve got a lot of great talent in Australian football.

“The issue I believe we’ve got is that kids don’t have a proper pathway from U17s going into Europe.

“There are a lot of young players who can’t get into the A league, which is an issue because you’re never going to get better if you’re not playing enough football.”

With the exception of Scott Twine and the Thompson brothers – Nathan and Louis – very few academy graduates have made a significant impact at Swindon in recent years.

Morfuni hopes that by bringing a handful of rough diamonds over to England, Town’s academy could one day become a more efficient model that fuels that skeleton of the club’s playing staff.

He said: “Swindon is trying to set up an academy [in Australia].

“I’ve got my head of football coming out here at the end of June, June 20, so we’re going to have a look at a couple of clubs and look at what we’re going to do in terms of setting up a proper pathway for kids to go to England.

“We understand the system, and the difference we have as an academy is we own a football club.

“And that’s better than just knowing the kitman or the manager – managers get sacked quite often over there.

“We’ve probably lost so many great players in Australia that have thought: “I’m not going to keep going because I can’t afford it, I need to make a living.” That’s sad for us as a football nation.”