This season has seen key metrics fall across the board as TV figures and crowd numbers plummeted while rows raged behind the scenes.

FIFA and the AFC had to get involved when state league sides demanded more say in the running of the sport in this country, while others demanded a second national tier and the introduction of promotion and relegation.

A-League clubs owners also wanted a bigger slice of the TV deal dollars while A-League fans wanted to see new clubs added to the league as soon as possible.

It's led to a bleak season where even Sydney's back-to-back Premierships and the Socceroos making their fourth successive World Cup have failed to lift the sport locally.

Now City Football Group want to see a swift resolution to the ongoing issues in order to take the game to the next level.

Brian Marwood, Managing Director of CFG's City Football Services, said the A-League had failed to live up to expectations.

"It's a little bit disapointing because we thought the league might be in a little bit of a stronger position than when we first thought about having a club in Australia." 

"It's not in the place we hoped for.

"Our vice-chairman is heavily involved with all the other A-League clubs to try and make this a better world and a world in which, hopefully, Australian football and Australian clubs can thrive and develop."

Marwood is in Australia to launch City's new academy structure, taking juniors all the way through the system to the A-League in the hope of unearthing new talent.

He insisted City was here for the long haul, despite the frustrations.

"We haven't walked away from it," Marwood said.

"We haven't said, 'You know what? This doesn't work so let's sell the club and move somewhere else because crowds are down, there's no real big commercial revenues here.'"

"We haven't lost faith. We haven't lost the the willingness and the energy for us to be an environment that I think we can help change. 

"I really believe we can help change."

But he added: "As you all know, and let's be very honest about it, there's clearly this disconnect between the owners and and the FFA.

"And until that gets resolved and for the good of the game, we're not going to be able to move on."

Marwood admitted the stalemate needed to be resolved quickly before the A-League was fatally wounded by the damage currently being caused.

"It kind of feels that there's just a lot of negativity around and that can't be good for the kind of the environment that we're all working in," he said.

"So for us, we can change some things, we can't change everything."

City are confident that thay have moved the club on dramatically from its days as Melbourne Heart – but while there is still plenty of work to be done, the current behind the scenes rows are making life even more difficult for them.

"I just have to look back at where we were when we first took over and where we are now and it is light years of difference," he added.

"But these things take time and we are actually doing it in an environment that is really struggling at the moment.

"It's incumbent upon all of us to try and make it better. It's unfair to say that it's up to the City Football Group to develop Australian football.

"I think we're one component of that. I think there are other clubs that can also play their part and develop that. 

"And that's the whole agenda of what's happening at the moment."