The objective of the A-League's current “You’ve Gotta Have a Team” ad campaign was to turn the 2.18 million Australians who participate in football into fans of the domestic competition.

The FFA's focus was to target the over 50% of kids aged 15 years and under that don't support an A-League team.

Record breaking Socceroo goalscorer Cahill has been the league's main attraction and unsurprisingly Yoshi, the face of the promotion campaign, chose Melbourne City.

While mos speculation about the new six-year TV deal has centred on expansion, marquees and free-to-air, Cahill believes the focus should be on the huge numbers of kids who play the game.

“The most important thing that I’ve been involved with for four years with Foxtel and Fox Sports is the grassroots,” he said.

“The implementation on how we can grow the game and with Kyah Simon playing in the women’s leagues and also myself playing in the A-League is to help to inspire them to follow the game and to play in the A-League one day.

“I’ve always had a strong relationship with Fox Sports and Foxtel, delivering a free program to kids across Australia.

"Whether I’ve lived here or not, this was a big part of making sure the exposure could really resonate not only in Australia but overseas as well and gain the momentum that we need to get investment into the elite level.

“Grassroots is going to be the main sticking point to how we create the next lot of players coming through.”

The FFA’s four-year strategic plan aims at increasing the number of junior participants supporting an A-League club by 10% per year and Gallop said the proceeds of the new broadcast deal wouldn’t just focus on the elite.

“We’ve made it clear in our four-year strategy that we want to look to make greater investment in the A-League and the W-League and of course we’ve got responsibilities to grassroots football as well,” he said.

“One of the things that we are focused on is connecting the massive base of the pyramid – the millions of people who play the game at grass roots level – to the elite level.

"We’ve already seen the success of our campaign this year with 'You’ve Gotta Have a Team.'  It was very much about our strategy, connecting the game, because if this sport is fully connected then there is so much opportunity ahead."

Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh also said the new TV deal would flow to the junior base.

He added: “I am also pleased to confirm that this new agreement continues our commitment to promoting the game at a grass-roots level, partly through initiatives such as Foxtel All-Stars Tim Cahill Ambitions program."