The Queensland State League has to bite the bullet and make this season its last - at least in its current form.

On Tuesday, barely six rounds into their first QSL campaign, the newly formed and Brisbane-based Southern Cross United officially withdrew from the competition due to financial concerns.

Specifically, the club has cited a lack of sponsorship revenue following the devastating January floods that saw many local businesses tighten their belts.

While Southern Cross United isn't the first club to abandon the Queensland State League - Logan United had previously folded after two lacklustre seasons, Redlands City Devils and Brisbane Olympic opted to return to the Football Brisbane pyramid - they are the first in the competition's short history to pull out partway through a season.

This is not a good look for a competition that when launched in 2008 stated the lofty ambition of becoming "the highest level of football outside the national A-League competition" and seeks "to provide a clear local pathway from club level to national level football for Queensland's elite male players."

Having a club withdraw from the competition in the middle of the season, leaving a hole in the schedule and players with A-League aspirations without a club isn't indicative of a high-level football competition with clear pathways to the national league.

More alarming though for a purportedly state-wide competition is the under-representation of the densely populated south-east corner of the state with many high profile clubs in the capital content to continue in the Brisbane pyramid.

As it stands there are now only four teams - Gold Coast Stars, Brisbane Strikers, Sunshine Coast FC and Queensland Academy of Sport - representing nearly three-quarters of the Queensland population. There is no team representing Brisbane's ever-growing western corridor out toward Ipswich.

The rest of the league is comprised of teams from the regional centres of Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Mareeba. And herein lies the biggest problem facing the Queensland State League.

You see, Queensland is bloody big place. It may come as a surprise to some (southerners mostly) that Brisbane is farther away from Townsville than it is Sydney. Hence, QSL clubs spend an unnecessary amount of time and, more importantly money, simply travelling to away matches.

In fact, the Queensland State League is the only second-tier competition in Australia that requires regular air travel for participating teams. It is an imposition on the clubs that need not happen and, if alleviated, could serve to strengthen the competition and the game in Queensland as a whole.

As I see it the Queensland State League has two options.

Firstly, it could abandon the concept of a state-wide league and contract to serve the oft-ignored regions exclusively. Under this scenario the four south-east clubs would be absorbed into the Football Brisbane pyramid or simply dismantled.

This option still requires significant travel for the remaining regional clubs but the farthest away trip would be slashed by nearly half.

Further, focusing on regional football communities gives the league a more defined and arguably more beneficial purpose and could even see other regional centres that aren't yet represented join the league (Gladstone, Mount Isa and Cairns immediately spring to mind).

Of course this option overlooks the South-East corner of the state and more specifically Brisbane - not only the political but football capital of Queensland.

Currently if you are a footballer in Brisbane the pathway to the national league isn't that clear at all. With just as many players being recruited to A-League clubs from the Brisbane Premier League as from the State League it would seem that even the A-League talent scouts aren't sure which competition is of the higher standard.

Hence the second option wherein the league remains state-wide but expands and divides into two divisions - one division serving the central and northern regions as in the first scenario, the other serving the seething urban masses of the south-east.

The clubs in each division would only meet those from the other if they qualify for the finals series thus alleviating the tyranny of distance that has been plaguing the league.

By including some of the traditional powerhouse clubs from the south-east it would also significantly strengthen the competition, taking the QSL much closer to that previously referred to aim of being "the highest level of football outside the national A-League competition".

Currently many fans, myself included, question how a competition that doesn't include Rochedale Rovers, Brisbane City, Queensland Lions and Brisbane Olympic can even come close to achieving that lofty ambition.

A south-east division could also provide opportunities for a team to represent the previously mentioned and foolish to ignore western corridor, and teams on each coast that can clearly sit above the current Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast pyramids, providing clear pathways for aspiring footballers in those areas.

Of course, I realise that any restructuring will meet its share of detractors but unless something is done to raise the standard and prestige of the league, while simultaneously reducing the cost of travel, it will continue to sit well below the Victorian and New South Wales leagues in the football pecking order.

And what self-respecting Queenslander wants to feel inferior to their southern cousins? Not this blogger, that's for sure.