Recent growth has been hard earned, welcome and incremental. But the 80 per cent acquisition of Melbourne Heart by Manchester City can now shift the ground within, and around, the game. With the EPL club having apparently approached Sydney FC, and been rebuffed, fortune smiled on the game because Heart is the perfect vehicle. The league needed Heart to strengthen, so everyone benefits. Melbourne is also home to one of the most toxically myopic media industries, at least half of it anyway, feverishly trying to protect their home-grown product, so the introduction of a truly global football club is beautifully poetic. Manchester City is owned in the Middle East, managed by Spaniards (Catalans, actually), and represented by the rest of the world: Argentinians, Ivorians, English, French, Spanish, Bosnian … and coached by a Chilean. That's football. If you were to design a Trojan horse to send into a still partly closed environment fearful of the international game, this would be it. The internationalisation of the A-League will now step up apace - in terms of players, matches here and abroad, Asian tours, television exposure and more. City's investment is part of a global strategy with subsidiaries in key markets, and leverage is obtained by promoting the brand and group. The glow will radiate league-wide.

Many clubs have talked about becoming the biggest in Asia, but the limiting factor is money. Only greater levels of investment in youth, in the squad, in coaching, marketing, tours and football systems can achieve this. With the desire and financial backing, Melbourne City or whatever the name Heart becomes, will have the genuine credentials to make this claim. And they have the expertise, too. Ferran Soriano, highly respected as part of the elefant blau consortium under Joan Laporta that revolutionised FC Barcelona in 2003, and Txiki Begiristain, one of the finest technical minds in football, bring a knowledge base, experience and contact network that can be utilised to lift the level of club administration, technical expertise and management of the league. The potential for a higher level of player is obvious, and to extract the highest return on investment City need the highest level of football possible; this will place an upward pressure on both the salary cap and the standard of the league that is hugely welcome. But aside from the international credibility brought by Manchester City (as well as its massive financial strength that dwarfs all other sports in Australia and its leading management expertise), above all the most exciting prospect falls on player development. Here, the Heart Mark II has the opportunity to completely change the game. I expect City to invest adequately in youth development, as Txiki Begiristain has already made very clear is his intention. Begiristain understands only too well the quantum and timeframe for this investment. Tens of millions. And decades. To compete internationally we need massive investments by current standards, which are wholly inadequate.

Begiristain also knows the extreme quality of coaching necessary to help our boys and girls reach the highest levels and for this there will be no compromise. He will not accept training on shared parks, on school grounds, like a beggar the game has often become, but will build a leading facility. He will build a youth sector of international class, and the education will be free. That is normal in Europe - how else would a club attract the best talent? But it will be a game-changer here. Most A-League clubs, not all, are chasing kids to make a buck and cover costs, and it's killing our future. City will create a new industry dynamic, they'll get the best talent, and others will have to follow suit. No more invoices for thousands of dollars for the privilege of sending your talented child to an elite program. Imagine what the game can achieve. This is my greatest hope for a partnership that holds such potential for the future of our game. My preference would be for majority Australian ownership to protect our long-term strategic goals but, in the absence of this and with reasonable protections in place, such partnerships may ultimately allow these goals to be met. Only faster.