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With the issue of expansion a hot topic as Football Federation Australia (FFA) seeks to double TV revenue in the next deal in 2017, Fong has the support of several fellow club chiefs, including Newcastle Jets' Nathan Tinkler and Central Coast's Mike Charlesworth, in his drive to open up lucrative new markets for the evolving competition.

"You need to risk a bit to grow and there’s no doubt that Southeast Asia is where the growth is going to be," Fong - Senior Vice President of the Bakrie Group, which owns Roar - said.

The Bakrie Group also owns Indonesian Super League club Arema Cronus as well as the TV and commercial rights for the competition for the next 10 years.

"The A-League is at a critical point," Fong said. "We’ve been successful but the next five to 10 years are as important as the first 10 because, if not careful, we could lose what we have gained.

"A-League boss Damien De Bohun mentioned a couple of years ago the possibly of one or two couple of teams from Asia playing in the A-League – I believe the time to make that happen could be now.

"It could provide unheard of and fantastic growth for the A-League ... there would be obstacles but they wouldn’t necessarily be insurmountable."

Fong believes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong or Macau could be fertile territory for start-up franchises backed by Asian consortiums, which would potentially expose the A-League to a population base in excess of half a billion across the region.

"You need people with credibility to shake the trees ... you have to talk to FIFA, the AFC, FFA and potential investors," Fong said.

"Someone has to put their hand up to fund a club, which they know will receive a decent sum from the TV deal, rather than them being simply a massive ATM every month.

"(FFA CEO) David Gallop says in regard to expansion that "we’ll fish where the fish are" ... well if that’s the case you need to go to Asia.

"I think he was referring to the Australian market and that worries me because I don’t know where you would expand.

"They have been talking about south Sydney and Brisbane ... we would love another derby but the numbers we are looking at don’t look viable.

"We all know what happened on Gold Coast and don’t want to see that again.

"You probably have one more team from Australia, or maybe a club like Auckland City, who finished third at the Club World Cup, could be considered also.

"But I have big concerns on who would buy a team. The Western Sydney Wanderers success was just pure luck. They should have been first off the rank years ago."

Singapore-based Tinkler sees Southeast Asia as the natural next step for the A-League.

"I would love to see us bring in clubs from there," Tinkler said.

"We are an important hub in the region but we are only 20 million ... if we can break down some doors into places like Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, we are going to be exposed to a whole new audience with all the commercial opportunities that brings.

"In Australia, I don’t know where you get the numbers from for more teams.

"I see Asia as part of the evolution of the competition.

"We need the support of the population base of Asia to bring some power to the A-League.

"Singapore, for example, is soccer crazy with six million people in a place roughly the size of Newcastle ... the whole concept has a lot of potential."

Charlesworth last month appointed ex-Socceroos striker and Perth Glory coach David Mitchell as the Mariners' general manager for Asia as the club chases off-shore investors and possible player recruits.

And he is also an advocate of broadening the A-League's horizons to the north.

"Any potential movement of the A-League into Southeast Asia should be seriously considered and evaluated," Charlesworth said.

"Australia would be exporting its expertise in many areas of the game helping to raise the standards in those countries that participated.

"The A League would benefit from the commercial opportunities of a population base exceeding 600 million where football is the number one sport.

"It would be truly ground breaking and give football across all levels in Australia a significant lift.

"I could see the A-League immediately becoming one of the top 10 leagues in the world."

While stressing the need to tread carefully through a minefield of stakeholders and possible pitfalls, Fong is also bowled over by the potential lying on Australia’s doorstep.

“We have Liverpool coming to play us in July for a sold-out game and they, for example, have millions fans in Indonesia," Fong said.

"So why can’t an A-League club have interest too because there’s a love for the sport there.

"It's complex but when hasn’t football been complex? You have to go into Asia somehow ... there is possibly a way and it needs to be looked at."

With FFA understood to be open to the possibility, winning the cooperation of the AFC may be the biggest challenge.

"The AFC is a disciplined and rigorous confederation but they’re used to dealing with multi-nationalities and multi-stakeholders and you could certainly sit down and talk," Fong said.

"The Asian mentality and way of doing things is ‘he’s my friend because we see each other for more than business'. We need to understand that way of thinking in Australia and not just fly up for a quick meeting and fly out.

"We need to get to know these people. If you embrace that then the door opens a lot wider."