Where that discussion leads is what matters the most. Put all the cards on the table and you never know what might happen next. First up, I make no assumption the Oceania Football Confederation would invite Australia back. I'd think New Zealand would be willing, but the other 10 island nations a lot less so. Yet if Australia is ever to return to the confederation it helped form in 1966, it's now-or-never. So why not test the lie of the land. The benefits are simple enough. Qualifying regularly for the World Cup, and the $15 million guarantee it brings every four years. Qualifying much more often for FIFA under-age tournaments, and the development benefit that brings.

A guarantee that an A-League club would participate in the FIFA Club World Cup every year, and the $1 million that brings. And last, but by no means least, the chance to host a World Cup (jointly with New Zealand), perhaps as soon as 2034. Are these benefits at least worth exploring? I'd think so. But it's where a conversation with the OFC would lead in terms of the Asian Football Confederation which is perhaps more fascinating. Twelve years after Australia moved to the AFC, there remains entrenched opposition to our membership, largely in west Asia.

Football Federation Australia's decision to back Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan in last year's FIFA presidential election, rather than AFC boss Sheikh Salman, has many insiders admitting our political stocks in the region have never been lower. So here's a great opportunity to flush things out. If the AFC tells us by all means go back to Oceania, and by the way make sure you shut the door on your way out, then it's clear there are powerful forces in Asia who will never truly embrace us. Better to find out where we really stand sooner rather than later, wouldn't you think? The potential benefits of being in Asia are huge, of course. I say potential because as it stands, the FFA is lucky to break even on most World Cup qualifiers (the final qualifier and a game against Japan the notable exceptions), A-League clubs lose up to $500,000 annually to compete in the Asian Champions League, and there is next to no chance of ever hosting a World Cup.

The true benefits of belonging to Asia – becoming entwined in world football's tiger economy – are yet to be fully felt, although the fact that two A-League clubs (Brisbane and Newcastle) are now owned by Asian investors suggests the tide might be turning. The football benefits of stronger competition are also an obvious incentive. Ultimately, though, what FIFA's decision to expand the World Cup does most of all is give Australia an unprecedented opportunity to become the circuit-breaker in solving the issue which matters more than anything else. A redraw of the confederation boundaries. The undeniable truth is that the AFC, as it stands, is a logistical, numerical, geographical, economic, religious and cultural fantasyland. Dreamt up generations ago by the same type of colonialism which has caused so much conflict in the real world. So here's the chance to right those wrongs, and it's Australia fate to be the instrument of change. The World Cup decision provides the leverage to finally put this thorny issue on the table.

Merge Oceania with east Asia, and push Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan to west Asia, and all of a sudden you have two confederations of roughly equal size and more common objectives. With its long history with Oceania and its fledgling history with Asia, Australia is uniquely positioned to kick-start the evolution. That's why the conversation matters. And that's why there's no better time to have it than right now.