The Brisbane Strikers have decided to push on with plans to apply for an A-League licence instead of waiting for Football Federation Australia to release their expansion blueprint.
The former National Soccer League champions are set to lodge formal documentation with FFA and will take a meeting with the governing body in the coming weeks.
FFA had promised to put out specific criteria for interested bidders in February but it could be delayed as they contend with other issues, including pressure from FIFA to reform their governance model and the negotiations surrounding the distribution of the new A-League broadcast deal.
In the meantime, the Strikers are continuing work.
“Things are progressing slowly but steadily,” Strikers chairman Bruce Atterton-Evans told AAP.
“We’re having a meeting with FFA in the next couple of weeks and we’re obviously starting on the bid document – until FFA release (their information) we’ll just work off past history of what they’re looking for.
“We should be starting shortly on our community engagement (process).
“We’re talking to different people about possibilities of stadiums and things like that. In the next month, we’ll ramp it up.”
Like fellow hopefuls Tasmania and South Melbourne, the Strikers insist they will be ready to join the competition as early as next season if spots for two new teams are made available.
That still remains a faint possibility, with early planning for the 2017-18 season draw yet to begin, but FFA favours 2018-19 as the right time to expand the A-League.
It’s understood Fox Sports want another team from Brisbane in the A-League and so far, the Strikers are the only group to declare they will put forward a bid.
It’s still unclear precisely what shape their proposal will take, with a potential collaboration with Ipswich and other parts of the so-called ‘western corridor’ still on the table.
However, the team is certain to play out of Suncorp Stadium for at least their first few seasons if successful.
Former A-League coach Miron Bleiberg, who is assisting the application, declared in October there were investors ready to bring a second team to Brisbane.
lesterlike
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Any SEQ team that even thinks of playing ANY games at Suncorp should be barred from entry and no longer discussed. The place is already plagued with issues from it's overuse and has been a disaster for Football in Brisbane.