Last month FFA revealed that they had engaged with global professional services firm Deloitte as lead advisers to assist with the process of expanding the A-League.

The governing body revealed that ten A-League aspirants have already lodged Expressions of Interest (EOI) for FFA’s two new licences for the 2019/20 season

But FFA came under fire from a number of parties for their decision to use consultants, one of which was the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association, (APFCA) which wrote to the governing body upset that they did not engage with the A-League clubs' foreign owners before they appointed Deloitte.

But Gallop told FourFourTwo that Deloitte would promote the A-League bidders to overseas investors.

“It’s an early stage in the process but potentially there is an ability to matchmake people to look globally to make sure that we are really tapping into the world game,” he said.

“This is to make sure that the process is a thorough one and we have access to an international market.

“Deloitte can assist us to find potential investors. It is a rigorous process and we felt that this was money well spent that will get us the right results.

“It’s a success-based fee arrangement so that will obviously be part of the equation as well.”

In terms of where expansion looks likely to occur, Gallop repeated his mantra that FFA will go to where the fishes are.

“We are aiming for the season after next, which means that we keep our skates on over the next few months,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of interest come in. We are looking for somewhere that can be successful in its geographic location but also add to the commercial growth of the competition. It’s going to be an interesting process, but we are in reasonable shape at this point.”

On the subject of promotion and relegation and how it fits into the expansion process, Gallop was tight lipped about what the future held for the A-League being part of an open system.

“There is still work going on regarding that and it’s being looked at very seriously. Obviously there are lots of opportunities but lots of challenges as well,” he said.

“The two are kind of related in some sense, but in another sense they’re quite separate. It’s all work that has to happen over the next few months.”