Canberra's A-League Men's expansion bid 'well advanced', APL says

The APL published its annual report on Monday and is confident the game can capitalise on international momentum after the Socceroos' success last year and the Matildas' record-breaking World Cup run this year.

It announced its plan to expand the A-League Men's competition in March, but details have been scarce since declaring Canberra and Auckland as the preferred expansion locations.

APL boss Danny Townsend had hoped to finalise details by June 30, but the process was delayed and the organisation set the end of September as its new timeline for finding someone to take on the $25 million licence.

Townsend wanted to announce plans before the start of the ALM season next week to give the new franchises more than 12 months to prepare for their inaugural campaigns.

With the deadline nearing, the report says expansion for 2024-25 is still on the radar.

"[The] APL is focused on expanding the number of clubs across Australia and New Zealand in order to maximise engagement with football fans, provide increased professional football pathways and optimise commercial opportunities," the report says.

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"APL announced in March its intention to expand the A-Leagues further with new expansion clubs planned for Canberra and Auckland (incorporating both men's and women's programs) growing both leagues to 14 teams.

"The process for the Canberra and Auckland expansions is well-advanced with strong interest from investors. An extensive due diligence and consultation program has been undertaken in both markets.

"Local football organisations, governments and potential investors have been core to this consultation. It is expected that teams 13 and 14 will enter the A-Leagues in season 2024/2025.

"In the longer term, early assessments are being undertaken of geographical markets for the addition of teams 15 and 16 into the A-Leagues."

It is hoped the A-Leagues will continue to be a production line for Matildas and Socceroos talent as they push for greater international results.

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has hailed Massimo Luongo's resurgence after calling up the midfielder for the first time in four years.

Former regular Luongo most recently played for the national team in January 2019.

But the 31-year-old's stellar form with Ipswich Town, currently second in the second-tier English Championship table, made him impossible to overlook for friendlies against England and New Zealand.

"He's been excellent at Ipswich," Arnold told Socceroos media.

"When I first took over, he was an integral part of the set-up and the plans ahead but he had a couple years of injuries. You can see he's in a very happy place mentally at the moment in Ipswich and he thoroughly deserves a call-up."

Luongo will provide crucial experience, especially with Mathew Leckie injured.

"We are going through a bit more of a rebuild situation at the moment," Arnold said.

"When you look at the squad overall, 11 players have had less than 10 caps, there's five or six players that have had between 11 and 20. So it's quite an inexperienced squad and I did feel with Mexico when I took off a Mitchell Duke or Jackson Irvine got injured, we lost that little bit of experience. With the retirement of Aaron Mooy and obviously Tommy Rogic now, we're going through that process of introducing some younger players."

Players are trickling into camp ahead of the two friendlies, with attackers Craig Goodwin, Awer Mabil and Brandon Borrello among those returning.

"Awer Mabil scored two goals and (had) an assist on the weekend as well and it's great to have him back in camp," Arnold said.

"Against Argentina and Mexico we went with more midfielders and no wingers because they were injured or weren't playing. But this time we've got a number of the wingers back and we've gone more with them."

Australia play England at Wembley on October 14 before facing New Zealand in the revival of the trans-Tasman 'Soccer Ashes' rivalry, at Brentford four days later, as they prepare for November's World Cup qualifiers and January's Asian Cup.

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