Faced with the real prospect of losing out to the cashed up Clive Palmer-backed bid – a spectacular late entry into the race last week - Taplin said he didn’t want any lingering rancour once the decision had been made.

“Isn’t it great that the Gold Coast will have an A-League franchise and that there are two bids? It shows how important the A-League is," he said.

"We’re not giving up of course but hopefully in years to come we’ll be remembered as being the people who started the process of the A-League on the Gold Coast.”

The FFA board meeting today (Tuesday) is expected to give the Palmer bid at least a provisional green light for the A-League in season five starting next year, thus spectacularly trumping Taplin's stalled bid which has been on the starting grid for six months.

Taplin’s bid is believed to have needed an extension on certain financial matters.

One Gold Coast football insider told au.fourfourtwo.com that the Taplin bid "simply didn't have the money".

Taplins' bid was also criticised by his now former football operations manager Miron Bleiberg. “The feedback we were getting from FFA wasn’t positive,” said Bleiberg today.

Last Friday, when Palmer’s bid publicly surfaced, Taplin removed Bleiberg and financial consultant Norman Chan from his bid.

Taplin added that he’d been trying to get in contact with the FFA before the board meeting today, but with no luck.

He will not be in Sydney today with his representatives.

“I’m a football fan and we all want to see the A-League grow on the Coast,"he said. "I want to bring people together, not be a divisive element once the decision has been made. That's not what I'm about."

He added that he may purchase a corporate box at future A-League games at Skilled Stadium. The property developer conceded there had been a lot of work put into his bid and but he refused to point fingers.