Regan made close to 100 appearances in the A-League for the Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United.

Now playing in Malaysia for Selangor, the defender still keeps a close eye on Australian football and the A-League.

The 31-year-old has watched problems fester in the competition for a while and feels improving the atmosphere at games and empowering the old clubs of the National Soccer League (NSL) should be the way forward.

"I think a lot of clubs need to have a boutique stadium," Regan told FTBL.

"Brisbane Roar playing at Suncorp Stadium looks ridiculous on TV and playing there as well. Obviously when Brisbane Roar were doing really well it's a different story. But I feel like the games that played at Redcliffe looked amazing, for TV and for the people that were there.

"And that's one of the things I really, really liked in my two years at Adelaide. The atmosphere at Coopers Stadium is the best in the A-League and it only holds 15,000 people.

"Over here in Malaysia we have the big teams like Johor and Selangor, Perak and Pahang and Kedah where you get these big fans and big numbers in big stadiums. But you also get games in 50,000 seat stadiums with 5,000 people.

"That's what I think is the biggest issue with the A-League right now is we need more boutqiue stadiums. But, unfortunately, clubs are at the end of the day a business and they need to generate revenue and they need these big stadiums as well.

"I would love to see more boutique stadiums for the likes of Brisbane Roar. They can have a boutique stadium and then at the end of the season if they're in the semi-finals and they can fill the boutique stadium out, then by all means move to Suncorp.

"But first and foremost we need to create that atmosphere that the kids and the cities can fall in love with. That's been lost.