At the announcement of the newly announced six year $346 broadcast arrangement with Foxtel, FFA CEO David Gallop revealed that they had increased the funding for the centralised approach to guest marquee recruitment.

Under the new $58m a year deal - which could be topped up further by a new free-to-air deal to be finalised later next year - the FFA's marquee fund used to help clubs sign major crowd-pullers has increased from $1 million a year to $3 million.

Cahill, 37, was the inaugural full season guest marquee and with funding tripled for next season, the veteran Socceroo striker said it was a significant boost for all A-League clubs.

“It’s important for each club, it helps the fans and the exposure of it,” he said. “It’s something the owners of the clubs, the players, everyone that has been involved in the clubs, hopefully they get rewarded and the players as well.

“You know hard it is to set up clubs, we know how difficult it is to run clubs and this will hopefully be a big day for them. Hopefully the league can grow and we can move forward together, and look forward to this partnership.”

The Socceroo veteran was a central figure during yesterday’s announcement with his wonder strike on his A-League debut an example that the marquee fund had achieved its goal.

“We’ve had great success by making an investment into a new fund this season,” Gallop said. “Exhibit A on that is sitting in that front row, and what about that goal that he got in the early rounds?

“So, we recognise that marquee players are important for the competition [but] they are only part of the equation. Growing homegrown talent, the imports who come into the competition are sometimes not well known but add an enormous amount, Berisha, Broich, Fornaroli, these guys become household names and that’s going to be important too.

“There is a commitment to add $2 million to the $1 million that we set aside this year and we will work with our clubs to chase marquee players. Because stars work in sport and we have to keep having stars and we have to keep chasing that type of talent.”

Cahill also said that one of the main responsibilities of star players was to promote and grow the game.

“We really have to focus on getting kids to games and getting families to games and welcoming them,” he said.  

“It’s part of our jobs as players to be role models on and off the park and to help take the game to the highest level possible whether it be domestically or internationally.

"We are taking a step in the right direction.”