17-year-old starlet Leo Mazis is due to be unveiled as a Celtic player on January 10 in Glasgow after having a successful trial with Brendan Rodgers team.

He will sign a 3-year deal which will see him play at Celtic’s academy and allow him to push for first-team honours alongside fellow youngsters Kieran Tierney, Kristoffer Ajer, Anthony Ralston, Calvin Miller and Mikey Johnstone who have all had game time this season.

Belconnen United was, of course, the club that Tom Rogic played at as a junior and is a great nursery of the game.

It beckons the question as to when Canberra United will be allowed to make the jump to the A-League?

Canberra United already have a very successful team in the W-League and are now in the National Youth League as well.

There is a purpose-built stadium in Canberra, the Australian Institute of Sport and a feeder competition in the ACT NPL from which to draw players from.

All the infrastructure is there, all that is needed is the franchise to be awarded to Canberra United.

With the FFA’s well-publicised issues with both the national Congress and with FIFA, the expansion that was promised has been sidelined.

This year is proving disastrous for the A-League with attendances dropping and TV figures plummeting, the competition is in need of some fresh blood to revitalise the repetitive format.

Clubs like Wollongong and Canberra would add a lot more excitement especially in the key market of NSW adding an away day for fans of its 4 teams.

Canberra has an airport which naturally services the rest of the nations capital cities allowing fans from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth direct access.

Football isn’t a franchise sport, it is a sport with a regular rotation of clubs ascending and descending throughout a pyramid.

If we are to spurn the model used by every nation on earth the least we can do is expand to new regions with fresh talent.

Canberra United would be a fantastic option for expansion with every government department and company having offices there to draw sponsorship from, a wealthy and educated demographic to draw fans or investors from and world-class infrastructure at the AIS to develop talent.

The sooner it is accepted the more talented players like Leo Mazis will matriculate to the A-League and in this case, beyond to Europe.