"At the same time we need to be continuing to provide meaningful opportunities for the A-League clubs, their owners and investors to be part of the game's decision making process. The continued prosperity of the A-League as it heads towards its 10th season requires focus. We are continuing to work with the clubs and the club owners to make sure their investment is well protected. "We have to get resolution on a few issues around the length of licences; that's something we are keen to get involved to everyone's satisfaction – how we come up with a structure that protects their investment and gives them security for the future while still having appropriate safeguards as the governing body of the game." Gallop is not keen on expansion in the short term. Nor does he see a second-tier competition with promotion and relegation in the immediate future. "We need to consolidate the 10-team competition that we have got and make sure we continue to provide a close and compelling competition to the broadcasters," he said. "Promotion and relegation has got challenges when you are dealing with a country the size of Australia, where we need teams in specific geographic locations. It's not something we are considering with much focus at the moment."

The establishment of Western Sydney Wanderers has been a feel-good story for the game and one of its biggest successes. The club is still up for sale, but Gallop said the FFA was relaxed about the time frame. The Wanderers were of interest to the Penrith Panthers, operator of the Penrith NRL team, but Gallop ruled that out. "At this stage we haven't seen a proposition where we think that mixing those cultures would be a smart move. It's certainly not something we are interested in given the unique position that the Wanderers have now got in Western Sydney where they have their own culture and a culture that spreads across all of the diversity of western Sydney. "We are continuing to explore the opportunity to sell the club. FFA doesn't want to own the Wanderers. We need to find the right people at the right price, but we don't consider it to be an urgent project. There are interested parties, and we are continuing to talk to them." "We want to get a healthy price for it, and one that takes into account the juggernaut that it has become overnight and the potential that it has for the future."

A sale fee of $15 million has been floated, but Gallop is coy on what the FFA is asking. There will be a dividend for the remaining clubs. "We are not putting a price out into the market," Gallop says. "We have always said we would look to share the proceeds in an appropriate way with the existing clubs. "What's appropriate? Some percentage is what everyone has got in mind. 50-50? I am not going into what the percentage would be." He will talk about the importance of the World Cup and the 2015 Asia Cup, which Australia hosts. In a piece he has written for the FFA website, Gallop said it became apparent in March, after the draw in Sydney with Oman in a World Cup qualifier, that things were not right within the Socceroos camp.

Loading Holger Osieck's removal in October was not solely as a result of the embarrassing 6-0 defeats in Brazil and France, he said, admitting that the process in which Ange Postecoglou was hired from Melbourne Victory was not straightforward. Brazil 2014 carries enormous resonance. "A realistic aim for the Socceroos in the World Cup is that we are competitive and we play in a way which makes fans proud of our place in a third World Cup in a row. The potential for the game is enormous in Asia. The Asian Cup 2015 will be a huge opportunity for the sport and the nation, and will be something that sets the game up in terms of its position in Asia for many years to come. We can see the Socceroos becoming Australia's one national team, uniting all Australians."