These should be worrying times for Football Federation Australia.

Instead of underdog heroes battling to victory and doing their country proud in far off lands, the mainstream press is filled with stories of mutinous Socceroos turning on their coach.

Football writers and players are squabbling in public, and TV analysts who should know better are ludicrously suggesting we should sack a coach days before he quits anyway - and presumably replace him with Graham Arnold. At the World Cup. 'Cos that will end well, eh?

Meanwhile shop shelves are still stacked high with unsold Socceroos strips, t-shirts, flags and scarves. The bandwagon has been abandoned, but the FFA still have their brandwagon.

Here's a fact you may not know - the FFA comprehensively trademarked "Socceroos" two years ago. Technically, we should probably put one of those little TM symbols next to it every time we use the word.

You thought it was a semi-anachronistic nickname. The FFA thought it was a marketing device and intellectual property that needed protecting.

Notably, it was not trademarked like that in 2006 when we were last at the World Cup.

Now, clearly it's not the cause of Monday's shambolic defeat against Germany, but it's symptomatic of the change in the national team in those four years.

Today, when the Roos are in town, precious little of their time is actually spent training. They do train, don't get me wrong, but they also have a punishing schedule of non-football related duties to perform.

Personal appearances, TV ads, fashion photoshoots, charity campaigns, sponsor meetings, dignitary greetings, school visits, gala dinners, mainstream media deals, fan signings - it all takes up a bigger and bigger part of the Socceroo roadshow...and none of it scores goals at the World Cup.

These publicity drives obviously raise the profile of the sport in the country - which is of course a good thing - but it also raises potentially unrealistic expectations of the team.

When you have the team lauded in the same way as the Wallabies and the Australian cricket team, the public will unconsciously associate them with the same level of success and demand it.

And while the Roos - on their day - can punch well above their weight and surprise anyone, they operate in a different scale of competition to the rugby and cricket teams, one which means they are simply not yet world-beaters.

The comedown of that - played out in albeit hyperbolic reality on Monday morning - can be a shock to a public unprepared for it.

Like it or not, the Socceroos are now a fully-fledged business with the trademarks to prove it - a brandwagon, and not only our immediate future in the World Cup rests on the result against Ghana.

The many and varied sponsorship deals also hang in the balance, inglorious defeat won't help our 2022 World Cup bid, and it will almost certainly impact on the number of youngsters who will dream of one day becoming a Socceroo and playing football as a result.

Arguably most importantly at stake though is the value of the next TV rights deal. If the Socceroos exit this World Cup an embarrassment, the number of people who will want to see them play on TV will of course be dramatically reduced, as will the value of that TV deal.

That deal is not beer money. The next contract was mooted to be worth a figure which would make the A-League a viable and profitable competition - but it all rests on the value of the Socceroos brand.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but a successful future of the sport in Australia may depend on what happens in these final two World Cup group games. So, no pressure then...

The alternative is that the FFA - and the Australian public and media - would have to confront the possibility that, unlike the Wallabies or the Australian cricket team, Socceroos are not world class.

Unfortunately that means they don't attract a world class premium deal. A mediocre one, definitely - but not world class - and the FFA and Socceroos have developed world class tastes in the last four years.

This Saturday, the FFA, Pim, Harry and the 22 other, probably more involved, Socceroos must prove they're all still about football - and do the business against Ghana.

They have created a marketing monster that now needs to deliver on its promises.

It's time to live up to the brand.