FFA chief executive officer Ben Buckley revealed to au.fourfourtwo.com that at least 12 separate inquiries regarding a competition franchise have crossed his desk during that spell as the desire to join the party continues to grow.

Gold Coast Galaxy and North Queensland Thunder looked close to admittance for season four, only to be ruled out while A-League franchises in Sydney’s West and South Melbourne are also being mooted.

Reports don’t always run with reality and Buckley joked that he ‘wouldn’t have enough hours in the day’ if he was to keep pace with the number of parties the FFA is supposed to be holding talks with.

However, he does admit there is a growing clamour to join the A-League party and that can only be a healthy reflection on the game’s standing in Australia.

Buckley said: “We have to grow but we have to grow in a well-managed and well-coordinated manner. We can’t undo the hard work that’s been done already in our growth ambitions.

“When we make decisions to expand they have to be made after a lot of due diligence has been done and that we are confident that any new teams have the capacity to add to the existing competition and not be a burden on it.”

Buckley accepts new teams would offer supporters and the game with an initial buzz but he isn’t interested in short-termism.

He said: “It (new teams) would have created an important bang but you have to look beyond the initial excitement. That’s what we had to do and we felt both Townsville and Gold Coast could benefit with a longer lead in period.

“The great thing is we are getting a lot of interest from a lot of different parts of Australia and that’s fantastic. It just shows there’s strong commercial interest, there’s strong private interest in the game and it continues to put football front and centre of the sports media.

“I’d say conservatively there’s been 12 (different interested parties) and I think that’s a pretty significant number.”