The AFL's massive five year deal with Seven and Fox Sports is worth $250 million annually and will see four games on Seven each week with all games broadcast live on Fox.

But hopes there might be something similar for the A-League have been dashed by those close to the deal.

The current football rights deal runs until 2013 but negotiations are expected to begin soon.

FFA CEO Ben Buckley has been retained by his chairman Frank Lowy despite a series of well-publicised recent failures because of his previous experience in doing the last TV deal for AFL.

A revised deal worth up to $42 million a year was snubbed by the FFA in 2009 when the influx of new clubs under the FFA's ambitious expansion programme allowed a possible re-negotiation.

At the time, the FFA rejected signing the new contract as they felt they could do even better by the time the current contract runs out when the A-League was expected to then have 12 clubs, incxreasing its value.

Since then, the A-League has shrunk back to just ten teams, crowd figures have slumped and anti-siphoning laws have further restricted the number of Socceroo games Fox will be able to show in future.

Additionally, the content-hungry 24/7 dreams of free-to-air sports channel One HD have been reined in by the new owners of Ten, while Seven have spent hugely on AFL and Nine are tipped to pay a huge fee for NRL.

Now the FFA look like they will be struggling to find anyone to bid against Fox Sports for the A-League rights.

And if the FFA try to force a free to air component - which gives a match of the round to one of the networks - it could see the value of the deal plummet, according to TV insiders.

Even as the deal currently stands, Fox Sports insiders say they are set to offer even less than they currently do for the same package they already get.

"The current deal is equal to Fox paying for 80 percent of each club's salary cap," said the source close to negotiations. "If there is no Fox, there is no league.

"When it's renewed, even for the same package, Fox will not pay the same. A-League's performance doesn't justify it.

"And if the FFA insist on one pick-of-the-round game on FTA then the offer could be as low as $3m per year."

The insider added: "The push for FTA could actually damage the league.

"Fox pay considerably more than it is worth. No FTA will be close."

A compromise could still see a highlights package offered to a FTA network to act as an advertisement for both the A-League and Fox Sports comprehensive coverage.

However it is understood there are still elements within Fox Sports who are opposed to that too, and even its supporters admit it can be sabotaged by poor scheduling by the FTA channels.

"There are those who would be happy for highlights show on FTA," said the source. "Same deal with Super Rugby. It's aired at midnight on a Tuesday, though... 

"The A-League won't get it as good as it gets now for some time. We're not the enemy - we pay for it all."