Unofficially, though, there is another element at play. For years the FFA has dreamed of a "Home of Football" in Sydney. Now the stars have aligned for the project to possibly be realised at Barton Park, a 9.7-hectare site owned by a private investor that includes the dilapidated St George Stadium. The catch? To get a large slice of the public/private money to make the $60 million project happen, an A-League team playing out of nearby Kogarah Jubilee Stadium may have to be part of the bargain.

Why the St George area seems to have usurped Sutherland as the base for a third Sydney team is as much about the recent changes to the federal electoral boundaries as anything else. Scott Morrison's electorate of Cook has crossed the Georges River all the way north to Kogarah. One of his closest mates, the former mayor of Sutherland, Kent Johns, is rumoured to be shifting to a prominent position in the federal Liberal Party. There's a lot of clout there and it will be people like Morrison and Johns who will heavily influence whether the federal government will provide up to half the money for the project. Having an A-League team playing out of Kogarah Jubilee, sub-leasing Barton Park as a training base, will help justify the funding to their new constituents. Wheels within wheels.

Nobody is going to deny a "Home of Football", which would provide a training centre for national teams, is long overdue. There is also a credible argument that Sydney can support a third A-League team, although I'm unconvinced this is the right time. But there is a precedent. The seed money for the Wanderers also came from the federal purse via a grant for community football in western Sydney.

But if all this comes at the cost of the Phoenix, I'm out. Expansion isn't expansion if there's contraction. We need more teams, sooner rather than later. Preferably including new markets.

Dumping one of the few existing clubs who have no monetary issues is absurd timing and dumb strategy. Shrinking the footprint of the A-League may help the FFA's bottom line in the short term, but ultimately it dilutes the "whole of the game" mantra being promoted at Whitlam Square. Holding the fact that the Phoenix are Kiwis against them is an easy way out. You don't hear the same argument from netball, Super Rugby, the NRL and the NBL. So what sense is there in football severing its ties with a market of 5 million people, where more people play the game than rugby, even if it's a hard slog?