Speaking at the A-League launch today, Gallop also revealed the new marketing strategy for the upcoming A-League season.

The “You’ve Gotta Have a Team” campaign focuses on the 50 percent of kids aged 15 and under who are not supporters of an A-League team.

However FFA’s ambition to increase the number of clubs in Australia’s top flight was the biggest talking point of the launch.

“Certainly 10 teams are too few, we want to move to 12 teams relatively quickly,” he said. “But the first step in that is some big commercial deals that the game is looking to do.

"Promotion and relegation will happen in Australian football but there is a lot more that needs to happen before we can sensibly move to promotion and relegation.

“We’ve got some big deals ahead. Those are our priority we need to underpin the investment that our owners make in their A-League club.

"If we do that then we will go from strength to strength.”

Head of A-League Greg O’Rourke said the FFA Cup and NPL finals series had started the process of introducing an open league system which he believed would take hold in the near future.

“I only have one thing in mind and that is when, not if,” he told FourFourTwo.

“It’s important to recognise the FFA itself set up these forums. In doing so very consciously it understands it will supercharge the debate around promotion and relegation and the gap between the NPL and A-League.

 “Now there is a commercial reality and a timeline in respect to depth of players and talent and also ownership models, but it is a place that this game in Australia will get to.”

Managing director of Sony Interactive Entertainment Australia Michael Ephraim, who heads the NPL Championship's major sponsor Sony PlayStation, agreed relegation and promotion would become a reality.

“That’s the ideal and the dream of everyone in football,” he told FourFourTwo. “When I met with David Gallop I said I’m really interested in the NPL because I can see what the FFA has been doing.

"They’ve been lining it up to be the pathway into the A League. I’ve seen the changes happen in the right direction.

“When we decided to take it on, we just saw that it was a match made in heaven. There was no sponsor ever before nationally. PlayStation is a Top three brand around the world.

“But a lot still has to happen, in terms of facilities, but we’re on the right path. Definitely the NPL is elevated by the FFA through its policies

“It’s happening, it’s a journey, it’s not going to happen overnight. When that happens, I will very, very, happy that the inaugural national partner of the NPL had a part to play in the escalation of the league. “