Football was officially named the biggest club-based participation sport in Australia according to independent data released by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) last Thursday.

Filopoulos said while participation was never an issue for football, there was a clear need to make A-League games more accessible on FTA in order to boost attendances. SBS currently broadcast Friday night games. 

“For me, the exciting part is not the number of participants because that’s no surprise,” Filopoulos told FourFourTwo.

“It’s the opportunity to connect and engage these people in the A-League.

"With a new broadcast deal and some free-to-air exposure, we’ve got an opportunity to capitalise on this large participation base and continue to grow the A-League to new heights."

Football Federation Australia has indicated 2018/19 as a likely time frame to introduce to new teams to the league.

Filopoulos added: “Expansion of the A-League to 12 teams will be six games (a round) and I can’t see why we couldn’t fit at least two games on prime time free-to-air television.

“I think it is feasible (to induct two new teams in 2018/19) and I also think the FFA are still finalising the criteria to where the two expansion clubs will come from.

“It’s been made possible because of the broadcast discussions...and the interest, from what we understand, for six games as opposed to (the current) five games.”

It is understood FoxSports are in front to hold onto the majority of the rights, but a free-to-air partner is wanted by the FFA as well as potentially selling digital rights to a telecommunications company.Social media network Twitter was also thrown into the frame last week to potentially stream games.

Meanwhile, Youth registration fees threaten to undermine the high participation rate of children in football with programs rising to as much as $2,400 a year in NSW.

Filopoulos said while there was value in training youngsters at elite level, he conceded prices were too high.

“I don’t think we have as much money coming into football in terms of television and commercial revenue as some of the other sports,” he said.

“The way I see it, as a parent rather than an official involved in the game, if you compare the costs of piano or violin lessons compared to what parents are paying for proper coaching in the NPL set-up, there’s three to four training sessions a week.

“Once you break down the costs...I think you quickly find it’s actually good value.

“Having said that, I would still like to see those fees come down as we are monetising and commercialising the sport.

“The quality of players Australia is producing now is getting better to a level we finished off with in the NSL days, finally we’ve seen Tom Rogic doing so well overseas.

“We’re starting to now get back to where we left off with a period in between where it was a bit questionable.

“We can see in the Socceroos some of the quality we’ve been able to produce. I would love to see the sport subsidising some of these costs for our youth or even managing it in a way that gets these costs down.”