A consortium, which includes former Melbourne Victory board members Harry Stamoulis and Robert Belteky, have been public of their intentions for a Tasmanian club in the A-League in recent weeks.

Ex-South Melbourne midfielder David Clarkson has been the public face of the consortium which met with Football Federation Australia (FFA) a fortnight ago and was due to meet Tasmania Premier Will Hodgman last week.

FFA declined to comment on the state of Tasmania's expansion bid, with the game's governing body now in the process of drafting up a framework of criteria for bidding franchises.

Tasmania is the only state in Australia without a professional football club in any code, although North Melbourne and Hawthorn have agreements to regularly play AFL games in Hobart and Launceston respectively.

The last time an A-League match was played in Tasmania was back in January 2013 when 6,238 fans turned out in Launceston to watch Melbourne Victory and Central Coast.

Victory has played numerous pre-season matches in Tasmania but has switched its attention to Geelong in recent years.

FFT CEO Mike Palmer said the entire state was desperate to get behind a professional football team in any sport and implored football to “steal a march” on the other codes.

“Obviously there’s lots of controversy about the fact Tasmania doesn’t have an AFL team,” Palmer told FourFourTwo.

“It’s a market where it would be very easy for football to really steal a march and trump the AFL and any other sport.

“Tasmania, for a long time, has been desperate about having its own footy team in any of the three or four football codes.

“It’s pretty clear who jumps in first is going to create huge goodwill, even for those who aren’t football fans, or if they prefer footy, rugby or cricket, this is the sort of place where everyone will jump on board.”

Melbourne Victory played Central Coast in Launceston in January 2013

Tasmania’s bid for an AFL club has arguably often been stalled by the state’s long-held north-south rivalry.

Palmer said Hawthorn and North Melbourne’s respective Launceston and Hobart bases had fuelled that rivalry, which is something football would avoid in order to galvanise the entire state despite the consortium’s decision to play at North Hobart Oval in the state capital.

“There’s an opportunity here to have really strong statewide support,” Palmer said.

“We’ve got a buoyant statewide league in the NPL competition. Within the football community there isn’t that animosity between north and south that there is in other areas and other sports.

“I think if there’s one team representing the state then that rivalry doesn’t exist. The best example of that is the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash.

“Everybody sees them as Tasmania’s team even though it’s got Hobart at the head of it and it hasn’t been a negative around support and interest in the team.

“I think we can get over that. Clearly it exists but people in all parts of Tasmania would want to see this work, I’ve got no doubt about that.”

FFA decision-makers will acknowledge Tasmania has a population of more than half a million people, which hasn’t been tapped into.

According to Australian Government data, Tasmania’s population growth over the next 15 years is predicted to be comfortably the lowest of any state or territory which may concern the FFA.

There was approximately 14,000 registered football players in Tasmania last financial year, showing there is a decent community in the island state.

“It’s a good sporting market, so it would bring on a whole bunch of fans for A-League,” Palmer said.

“At the moment, down here people don’t really follow the A-League closely, even though we’ve got very good numbers of people playing, they don’t feel particularly related to any of the A-League teams and that would change dramatically.

“The FFA needs to make a value judgement about the pros and cons of a team in Tasmania. We think there’s plenty of positives about it.”

Palmer added the consortium had been thoroughly professional in their approach, since he was first told about the bid by them five months ago.

“They’ve engaged with local people, met with politicians and councils,” he said.

“They’ve got themselves off to a good start and have created a positive impression with everybody they’ve met with.”