SO, now we’ve got the “soccer’s in crisis” mob off our backs - for a week or two at least - it’s time to get back to talking about football, and more specifically, the plan to grow the game over the next few years.

Intriguing word that, plan.

Following the “Whole of Football” plan, released last year, we’ve not heard a whole lot about whether the ambitious targets contained within it are on track. But we’re about to.

David Gallop let the cat out of the bag last week (perhaps prompted by Tim Cahill’s claim that the game lacked vision), when he talked of FFA’s “four-year plan” - the details of which are, at the time of writing, unknown.

Sources at the governing body say the details will be rolled out soon, and the only clue they are giving, is that the A-League will be front and centre.

All of which is good news, potentially.

The senior competition certainly needs attention, as we move into the second phase of growth. So, what could this four-year plan contain?

I think it’s probably fair to say the ten A-League clubs would like - and will probably receive - a little more autonomy, after a decade of austerity, in which they have found money hard to make, and very easy to lose. An A-League commission may not quite be on the cards just yet, but we’ve already seen the easing of restrictions on clubs commercial activities. I’d expect that to gain further ground when the plan is released.

Simon Hill discusses this, and much, much more on this week’s Fox Football Podcast with Brenton Speed, David Weiner and Daniel Garb.

Marquees have been a hot topic (culminating in the Cahill/FFA exchange that was unfortunate), and a strategy on this is crucial, not just to bring the likes of Cahill home, but to bring other top players to this part of the world.

We may not be able to bring to the table the sort of cash on offer in America, China or the Middle East, but Cahill is right when he says we should make more of the lifestyle Australia can offer - and provide the chance to leave a legacy, in the way Zico did in Japan, and Kashima Antlers in particular.

Delving deeper into the long-term aims of the twenty-year plan, it’s fascinating to re-read (even just twelve months after its release), some of the goals listed by FFA in 2015, which included the following...

- Embracing Asia

- 75% of junior participants to follow a top tier Australian club

- A-League to be played in more intimate stadiums

- A-League to become the most popular sporting competition in the country

Have we embraced Asia? Not fully, in my opinion - and certainly not on the pitch. Ali Abbas remains the only Asian-born player in the A-League (and he arrived here as a refugee, and is now an Australian citizen), while neither Melbourne Victory or Sydney took up the option of the “Plus One” Asian player for their Champions League campaigns. Meanwhile, Asia has long embraced Australian players, many of whom now earn their living playing in AFC competitions.

The target of 75% of junior participants following an A-League club may be achievable long-term - and certainly the cheap ticket offers over the holiday period, allowing adults to bring their kids under 16 in for free was a big success.

More of it please - the juniors are the fans of the future, and they already pay extortionate fees to play. A-League games should be made as easily accessible as possible for the sports greatest strength - the kids.

And what of intimate stadiums and making the A-League the most popular sporting competition? Still some way off by the looks of things; and you do wonder when (and which) A-League owner is going to be a true pioneer, and actually build a football-specific, and fully football-owned stadium. Probably not in our lifetimes.

But in my opinion, the biggest challenge (and potentially, the biggest game-changer) remains expansion, and the thorny topic of promotion and relegation.

It was an issue skilfully avoided in the “Whole of Football” plan, with a rather woolly commitment to “a managed process of ‘in and out,’ as circumstances arise, rather than promotion & relegation based purely on results.”

The plan went on to say that new entrants would need to meet “criteria, based on funding, football development, stadium capacity & facilities.”

It’s not a solution that finds favour with everyone - myself included - but if that’s the way forward, then let’s start having that discussion. Give ambitious clubs (or interested consortiums), the criteria now, and let’s try to build a platform for future expansion.

Call for expressions of interest from existing NPL clubs, or new ventures, set down the criteria in stone, and let’s gauge what the market might be able to provide. My own personal preference would be to attempt to find eight such interested parties, with a view to setting up a national second division within the next decade - promotion (and ultimately, relegation), would be a natural flow-on from that. Not immediately, but in time.

Either way, much hinges (as it always seems to do), on the outcome of the next TV rights deal. Hopefully it provides enough to enable football to continue on a sustainable growth path, and with the ability to achieve some of those goals.

But the game has to provide value for any contractual increase - it can’t just keep chugging along, looking to be bailed out every four years. That’s not a plan.

Hopefully, FFA has a better one when they make public the details within the next month.