The Socceroos hold a meet and greet autograph session at centre stage, Westfield Woden, on Friday. Credit:Graham Tidy Canberra has been overlooked many times but could come into consideration if the Wellington Phoenix drops out of the competition. "Canberra is obviously still on the radar for the future of the A-League, but not in our immediate agenda," Gallop said. "Our immediate agenda is to consolidate the competition. "We have an obligation to provide a 10-team competition, so we are always researching alternate areas so we are fully prepared for the future.

FFA boss David Gallop with Socceroos star Tim Cahill at Parliament House. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "The challenge with these things is to engage with the community and engage with big population bases with growing demographics and young families and Canberra certainly is in that category. "I think the big metropolitan areas have an advantage because there is millions of people not hundreds of thousands of people." A third team in Sydney has been mooted as the team most likely to come into the A-League if the Phoenix loses its licence. "It's prudent planning to be researching other areas," Gallop said.

"There's three criteria - we want to choose somewhere which will be successful in its own right, will add value to the competition and the code generally and have a positive impact on our existing clubs. "There's a number of contenders for that proposition. "Canberra is certainly one of them, but there are pluses and minuses and we'll continue to research and analyse a number of areas against the criteria." It was the first time the Socceroos had returned to Canberra since they beat Malaysia 5-0 in a friendly in front of just over 10,000 people. The FFA came in for criticism for how they handled that game with the Socceroos arriving the day of the game and having little involvement with the community.

Four years later, it has been a different story, with Socceroos players visiting schools and shopping centres and holding an open training and autograph session on Tuesday night. "It was certainly part of the plan that we make a proper week of having the Socceroos in Canberra," Gallop said. "We've had great support from the ACT government to bring the game here, but I think it's been a week where we have demonstrated the length and breadth of Australian football. "From the Socceroos and the activity they have been part of, to the Matildas being in camp, to the initiative we announced for the Syrian refugee crisis and the general engagement with the grassroots community. "It's never easy when they come from all corners of the globe into camp."

Canberra's chances of hosting the Socceroos in the next few years are slim. The Socceroos have two more games in this stage of World Cup qualifying, against Tajikistan and Jordan, with another five games in the final stage. "It always depends what opposition we draw and we adopt a horses for courses approach once we know what the opposition is," Gallop said. "I wouldn't want to say the door is necessarily completely shut, but we anticipate games against big opposition with the opportunity to get 50,000 to 80,000 to games and that would count Canberra out."