With FFA involved in other matters such as negotiating changes to Congress and the structure of the A-League, the expected formalization of expansion criteria that was due in February has been delayed. 

John Didulica has overseen the player's representative body since June 2016 and said more A-League and W-League teams were needed for the game to be able to compete at home and abroad. 

“We need to build our professional football footprint which means adding more professional football clubs throughout Australia for men and women,” he said. “This is fundamental to the sport being domestically and internationally competitive.”

Didulica believes how potential new clubs are measured was more important than when FFA finally released its expansion guidelines.

“Timing is not the most important aspect of any criteria nor is trying to find a magic number,” Didulica said.  “Of greater importance is that we get it right. The process needs to be fan/market driven and based on a clear understanding of what will work economically for the league and sport as a whole."

“New applicants must be assessed against three key criteria: the measure of fan base and broad community support, a stadium and facilities that are conducive to football, and the capacity of the ownership, in terms of both sport industry know-how and capital. The more work that is done now in building a vision for that professional footprint, the less fire-fighting we will need to do down the track."

When FourFourTwo spoke to Head of A-League Greg O’Rourke in November, he said the governing body would not be keeping the criteria in-house.

 “There will be no reason to hide it,” he said. “We haven’t discussed this inside the organisation and I can’t speak on behalf of the board and the process around this but there will be no need to hide what we will be doing around what the succuss factors are for the 11th and 12th teams.”

Last week the Geelong-based Victoria Patriots A-League expansion bid team announced an advisory board. Joining former Socceroo Steve Horvat was former Etihad Stadium chief Paul Sergeant, Chairman of Geelong Regional Football Committee Joanne Plummer and Maurice Bisetto, the president of Moreland City Football Club.

And even with the criteria being delayed, Horvat said the Geelong bid was confident the team they had assembled were experienced enough to know what would be required.

“I’ve spoken to Greg O’Rourke a couple of times and they are obviously not ready at the moment,” he said.  “We’ll just keep on doing our thing when they are ready to put their criteria out there whether it’s this month the next month or three months’ time then we will look at those guidelines.

Horvat added, “We’ve got enough people in our group that we really don’t need a criteria from the FFA. We know what is going to work and that is what we are working towards.  I see the club structure, the club’s vision and the club’s financial stability as the most important thing at the moment.”