A-LEAGUE expansion, promotion and relegation is once again the hot topic in Australian football, but does that mean the FFA are set to take action?

While expansion of the league is not longer an if or when, but rather a how, implementation of promotion and relegation could still be years away

The key issues involving A-League expansion are broken down below by Fox Football’s experts.

PODCAST Extra: Adam Peacock, Simon Hill, Mike Cockerill with strong views on expansion, promotion/relegation.

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TRANSFER CENTRE: Ins, outs

WHY HAS EXPANSION TALK RETURNED?

Mike Cockerill: Has it bubbled to the surface? What we’ve got here is an annual thing. The FFA Cup excites people, we have the various National Premier Leagues which get some traction over winter, and we have the NPL final series that has just been won by Sydney United. So the level under the A-League gets its moment in the sun in this period in the year so the football community starts talking about the issues of expansion, promotion and relegation.

Simon Hill: It’s been pushed to the surface by clubs, fans and the media turning up the heat. That’s how a lot of things get done in football in countries around the world.

The fact is I think FFA chairman Steven Lowy and CEO David Gallop probably had no option but to address these things because they’ve been major topics of conversation over the last couple of months.

IS THE TALK SERIOUS?

Cockerill: After eight years of hearing it from FFA I don’t think too many people actually believe that they’re fair dinkum about it.

Steven Lowy and David Gallop both spoke about it in the last 48 hours, but I don’t think the things they’ve said will convince too many people that they mean business.

The public interest in this is enormous. Don’t be all secret about it [FFA], come up with a plan, publish a timeline and invite applications. But they won’t do that.

Hill: Is there any substance behind the expansion theories? I don’t think there is at the moment. I’ve certainly not seen plans. When they had the chance to put out a proper plan with the ‘Whole of Football’ program that was released, it was very very woolly with vague commitments when the conditions are met.

I hope FFA have a firm plan, but I’m dubious as to whether they do.

We’ve got a bumper season preview for season 12 of the A-League with Adam Peacock, Simon Hill, Daniel Garb and Michael Cockerill.

WHERE WILL THE NEW TEAMS COME FROM?

Cockerill: Fish where the fish are; that’s a very subjective discussion.

They talk about markets for millions. They talk about Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane having new teams and then down the track Adelaide and Perth. That’s all very well and good if the interest in those cities is real and the demand is real.

I am constantly frustrated with FFA’s ‘lip service’ to the regions. Regions have an asset that cities don’t have in that you can make a team tribal very quickly, like Geelong, Wollongong, Canberra and Townsville. You don’t have to artificially create an ownership of a team in those centres - it’s there. Why not put them in the mix as well?

Wollongong Wolves’ Zachary Mackenzie and Sydney FC’s David Carney during an FFA Cup match. Source: Getty Images

Hill: I think the FFA has alluded to that they’ve decided they will go to the big population centres. I think they certainly want a third team in Sydney.

They would’ve had one last year if they had got rid of Wellington - which I think they wanted to. It was public opinion and support from the other clubs that kept Wellington alive, but for how long?

But there’s no firm evidence to suggest where they’re going. There is no public plan.

What’s clear for me is the football community is starting to get rather impatient for progress and I think that’s good. We should be trying to kick on. We’ve had great success in the first 10 years of the A-League but we’ve got to going because there’s still a long way to go.

WHAT IS THE STRATEGY?

Cockerill: If Wellington was replaced, the third Sydney team was going to be this nebulous, market research, focus group-drive idea that there’s a corridor between the St George area and Liverpool.

Anyone who knows the geography of Sydney will tell you that’s not a region. But FFA were transfixed that’s where the third Sydney team would be. Why were they transfixed? Because there’s political interest from mayors of the various councils in that corridor to support the team, Kogarah Oval may have been able to be upgraded at a reasonably cheap cost to host the team, and the quid pro quo was that the politicians would therefore finance a football FFA centre of excellence at the old St George stadium site.

So these are the deals within the deals, and if that’s the way that we’re going to get expansion in the A-League, behind closed doors, then I’m not happy. I’m not going to be apart of it. That’s not the audience. The real audience is football fans who come from a real region and feel real ownership with a team.