Since FFA announced they were planing on adding two new sides to the A-League, Tasmania, Geelong and North Queensland have thrown their hands up to join Australia's top flight.

And even though the A-League boss said large cities would still be the preference, O"Rourke gave plenty of hope for regional areas who wish to be part of the expansion process.

“What we’ve said publicly about fishing where the fish are is absolutely still our first lens to see things through,” he said. “However, having said that there are a number of bids if you like that will no doubt come from communities who are looking for a football team to actually build their community and build pride in their community and have government support etc.

“I think we will be pleasantly surprised with some bids that now in 2016 look very different to what they were five years ago in respect of the why’s. “If it’s about, we wish to build our community around a sporting team and this is one where we see with the A-League as a potential and they can back it up financially and it’s sustainable, we will be listening.”

When it comes to expansion’s magic number, O’Rourke said that he would like to see the league grow to 16 teams.

“12 teams are not the end of the expansion,” he said. “That is the first thing that we should say. When we see who successful the 12 teams are we should be looking to what the next number is. The next number in blocks of two will be 14 and then 16. That’s pretty much in keeping with our competition codes in Australia as well. If you think about the amount of teams the AFL and the NRL have, 12 is not enough and 16 might be that sits pretty close to the rest of that.

 “We don’t want to build too quickly and we don’t want to build to quick. We want to make sure we have player talent and sustainability for the league but we should remain aspirational in terms of how many teams there could be.”

O’Rourke also said FFA would be looking to enlist support from Government at State level and below in getting potential bids off the ground.

“When you talk about the Government I don’t think the Federal Government,” he said. “I think what we see is State Government and to some degree regional local Governments/Councils actually getting invested in more ways than one behind potential A-League bids in their communities.

“That’s where we will find the support. We see that in respect of communities that want to grow and flourish on the sports based agenda, are looking to have something tribal for their community and the A-League provides the opportunity for that.”