Two representatives of a Russian businessman with ownership links to at least one Moscow-based football club have spent the last two weeks in Australia.

The pair have chiefly been in Gosford and with the FFA in Sydney doing due diligence on a club which is flying high in the A-League but struggling badly off it.

The representatives have now returned to Russia and will report back with their findings.

One FFA insider described this potential investment in the financially ailing A-League club a “promising” although the amount of ownership in the Mariners still remains unclear.

However the players were paid, according to the FFA, on December 15 - albeit not until late afternoon - and it’s believed the club and not the FFA made the payments.

FFA Chairman Frank Lowy made it clear in a recent speech that the FFA were no longer in the business of bailing out A-League clubs with interim ownership deals.

It was this, he said, which contributed to the FFA posting a small operating loss in the last year after the national body had bailed out a handful of other A-League clubs before fresh investment was found.

“This is not a sustainable approach,” he said.

However, this on-going issue hasn’t affected the Mariners who are the the form team heading into this weekend’s big clash with fellow table toppers the Roar in Brisbane.

Follow me on Twitter @Aidothejourno