According to Sutherland Shire mayor Carmelo Pesce, representatives of Cahill made contact with key stakeholders in the city's southern suburbs over the possibility of the striker being part of any venture to lead an A-League club. Southern man: Tim Cahill has expressed interest in being involved in a third Sydney A-League team. Credit:Melissa Adams Australia's leading goal scorer is eager to lend his support to any successful bid in the Sutherland region, which boasts the most number of registered junior footballers in Australia. It is not yet known whether Cahill is looking to play for the proposed club, financially invest or lend his brand to promote the club, but he is set to meet with associations and councils in the coming weeks with a view to getting on board with the bid. The Shanghai Shenhua striker will be on holiday in Sydney during the Chinese Super League off-season. "Tim's very keen to get on board," Cr Pesce said. "Tim's quite happy to meet up and we'll go from there and catch up some time early in the new year. He's a very big supporter. We have more juniors here than anywhere else in Australia, if not the southern hemisphere, which will bring great value to this area."

The football associations of St George, Sutherland and Wollongong have already joined forces with local councils to support the bid and been granted the blessing of Remondis Stadium owners Cronulla Sharks to use the venue as a home ground. Expansion to a 12-team competition is not likely to occur for another four years, however the region is braced to house a team on short notice pending the future of Wellington Phoenix. An FFA spokesman confirmed the organisation is yet to receive an application for a four-year licence extension from Wellington Phoenix whose future in the A-League is in doubt. "Wellington Phoenix and FFA continue to discuss the situation," an FFA spokesman said. "The onus has been on the club to put alternatives in place since October 26 when the board of FFA determined that the club's application for a 10-year licence extension would not be granted. "The Phoenix has the option of requesting that FFA lodge an application to the relevant football authorities to seek approval of Phoenix's participation in the Hyundai A-League until the conclusion of the 2019-20 season. Such an application is required in order to seek exemptions from various statutes of Football New Zealand, Oceania Football Confederation, Asian Football Confederation and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association [FIFA]."