The consultants behind Central Coast Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth’s plans for A-League expansion into Asia have urged Football Federation Australia (FFA) to have another look at their proposals.

Jon Smith, who runs player agency and consultancy First Artist, says A-League teams in Hong Kong, Singapore or other Southeast Asian cities could work and would get an official tick.

But it is unlikely to make FFA chief executive David Gallop change his mind on the issue, having declared it dead in the water.

Smith says meetings at the top table of world body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation have convinced him of the merits of international expansion.

Gallop has cited shaky financial viability, competition with the Asian Champions League, television rights and logistical challenges amongst his objections.

But Smith called Gallop’s comments “somewhat disparaging” and urged Gallop to reconsider.

“Without exception, every party understood that the logistics could work,” Smith said.

“Financially we’re talking numbers way beyond the A-League’s expanded expectation, which in turn would have given rise to a number of marquee players plying their trade in the region.”

Gallop said he allowed Charlesworth to explore the possibility but he was not interested.

“It’s true we didn’t discourage it, but I wanted them to find out for themselves,” Gallop said to Fairfax Media.

“We allowed it to be explored to a logical decision point, and that was reached last week.

“Fact is, at the current time we have no enthusiasm for this type of expansion.”

Source: AAP