"When we are putting plans together, we have to be ambitious," says Skoko, who was capped 51 times for Australia. "If you are not aiming for the top, you are wasting your time, whether it's 2040 or sooner or later, we should aim for it.

"I think FFA is currently in a position where there is a lot of thing going on, a lot of restructuring will happen in the next 6 to 12 months. Small things that will fix some mistakes we have made. The discussions are about making players and coaches better."

But Skoko admits one of the main issues Australian football faces when trying to move the game forward is a simple lack of money.

"Australia has its challenges in terms of funding, because we are not a number one footballing country...that has held us back a long way," said the 2006 World Cup veteran.

"Countries like France and Germany had huge resources to put their plans together. Belgium had huge resources when they changed their junior systems.

"We are talking professional clubs with budgets of 100s of millions of Euros. They had governments with a focus on football because its the number one grossing sport in the country.

"Football is the most participated sport in Australia but other sports which have far less participation get much more money from the government. We are not asking for anything more  than we should be getting, we just want our fair share of the pie."

Skoko backs a wholistic football plan, from the Under 17 Joeys through to the senior Socceroos set up, where the best players go to the best leagues in the world and build the profile of the sport.

"We are very different, we have to try something different," he says. "That is where our challenge lies. Our plans have to be a little bit different. If we want to be world champions at some stage, it's going to take a combination of a lot of factors to make it happen. 

"That is one of the strategies with the Starting XI and Golden Generation, with the conversations we are having. It's about making sure we qualify for World Cups from Under 17s to 19s to 23s through to the Socceroos which puts our players on the world stage and lets them be seen by clubs overseas. This will allow them to forge good careers overseas and help lift the profile of the game.

"When we had a Harry Kewell or Mark Viduka in Europe, it built the sport in Australia big time. If we have players in Europe, it makes our profile bigger and the government will see that and hopefully provide more funding. It hurts the game here when we don't have as many Australian players in the biggest leagues now.