When asked if he had had any contact with CA, Gallop replied: "No".
Gallop's more pressing concern is Australia's tilt at the World Cup in Russia and the A-League expansion process.
The chances of Sydney's Southern Expansion's A-League bid winning a race for entrance into the competition next year were dealt a blow after he confirmed their threat to Sydney FC's membership base had been acknowledged by FFA.
After a public slanging match last week between the Sky Blues and the bidding team, Gallop says Sydney FC's complaints about a new team in the city's south will not be ignored. Sydney FC released a strong statement labelling Southern Expansion - led by Craig Foster and former NSW Premier Morris Iemma - as a "flawed" bid that directly targets the Sky Blues' largest region for registered members, prompting a loaded response from the bid team.
Gallop says the potential of Southern Expansion to eat away at Sydney FC's supporter base is a concern and the FFA will take into account the potential threat any new team will have on the market of existing clubs as part of the expansion process.
"We’ve always said that we have to be really careful to consider the impact on the existing clubs," he said. "There is probably aspects of that [exchange between the two parties] that were less than ideal but I don’t think it was any secret that Sydney FC have strong views about the south-east region and of course that will be taken into account ... that’s always been the case."
Meanwhile, FFA chairman Steven Lowy remained firm that the organisation will go ahead with the expansion process despite the ongoing uncertainty over its composition and future due to its congress crisis. The make-up of the congress review working group was approved by FIFA after lawyer Judith Griggs was appointed as chairperson for the committee entrusted with solving the bitter political impasse in Australian football.
Despite suggestions FFA has been instructed to simply keep operations going as per normal until a new congress is confirmed and ratified by FIFA, Lowy says FFA has every right to act independently of the working group and oversee the expansion process.
"Absolutely, FFA is a legitimate governing body of the game in the country," Lowy said. "We’re moving on with the expansion of the game. There are a number of detractors to that but equally you see a number of A-League chairmen strongly in favour of what we’re doing so everyone’s got a voice in football," Lowy said.
"It's our expectation that notwithstanding the review process that’s going on now next year’s A-League will be much better than last year's because everyone’s working together."
Lowy said FFA supported the appointment of former Australian Grand Prix chief executive Griggs as chair of the working group.
"I'm hopeful it will be resolved," Lowy said. "I’m hopeful we’ll get a fresh approach, we’ll come up with a result and hopefully that’s a result the game can go forward on. As you know, there were some vastly different views and there still may be some vastly different views."
Dominic Bossi is a football reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
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