Maybe, just maybe, Football Federation Australia is starting to listen and learn. Eight years after Frank Lowy first mentioned a second division as an option, the governing body seems to be taking the first baby steps towards the creation of a desperately-needed national second tier.

Is it because a joint FIFA/AFC delegation will be in town this week to push the barrow for a second division with promotion and relegation and the FFA simply want to be seen to be doing something? Maybe. Does it matter what the motivation is? Not at all. What matters is that the pressure for a second-tier is building to fever pitch, both internally and externally, and the FFA can't keep sticking their head in the sand hoping it will go away. It won't.

The vast majority of FIFA's 211 members have multiple tiers of professional/semi-pro leagues. That tiny countries likes Andorra, Mauritius, New Caledonia and Malta are on that list tells you the pyramid system is an ingrained football tradition. There's good reason for that.

The only other serious football country apart from Australia without promotion and relegation to the top tier is the US, but the Americans still have a popular second-tier competition, the NASL, which these days includes iconic names like New York Cosmos, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies. And several lower-league clubs (Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps, Orlando City and Montreal Impact) have ended up in the MLS by application - underlining the intrinsic value of the pyramid system as a breeding ground for aspirational clubs, coaches and players. The FFA like to point to America as justification for their go-slow on the matter, but clearly the argument doesn't stack up.