Following a tumultuous few years after its controversial $45 million World Cup bid, Australian soccer has slowly worked itself back into some sort of favour among government circles in Canberra.
Tuesday's announcement of another tilt at a World Cup, this time the women's edition in 2023, saw Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy and his chief executive, David Gallop, flank Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the official unveiling of the bid.
It is an undoubted good news story featuring the powerful combination of the promotion of women's sport at a time when interest across many codes is surging and Australia's track record of hosting big global sports events.
The launch was also the culmination of months of lobbying the Prime Minister, Treasurer Scott Morrison and Sports Minister Greg Hunt, all of whom have to be convinced that federal support should be forthcoming for another dive back into the byzantine world of politics at soccer's world governing body FIFA.
FFA will receive an initial $1 million to help lay the groundwork for the bid, which will be due late next year before an official decision is made in early 2019, with the promise of another $4 million if certain conditions and milestones are met.
It is a far cry from the $45 million FFA once received from the government for its ill-fated bid for the 2022 men's World Cup, which became mired in controversy over the costly employment of European consultants.
The sum is also considerably less than the $15 million rescue package Lowy's father and FFA chairman predecessor Frank received to restructure the organisation in 2003 from then prime minister John Howard, and less than the several millions that flowed to broadcaster SBS in the past four years for A-League broadcast rights from government coffers under a deal cut by former prime minister Julia Gillard.
But at least the tap has started running again, after a period when soccer was almost treated with pariah status around the corridors of power in Canberra as the 2022 bid caused controversy for years after the bid was lost in 2010. It is unlikely, for example, that such support would have been forthcoming a year ago.
Lessons learnt
"No doubt there were some lessons learnt from the previous bid...that we will be taking on board," says Gallop. "It will certainly be a narrower exercise than it was last time."
While that means Lowy is unlikely to crisscross the globe lobbying for votes for the bid as his father did, FFA still has to tread warily through a global political minefield.
On a global level, Australia now also doesn't have FFA director and lawyer Moya Dodd on the powerful FIFA Executive Committee after she lost her position this year.
Gallop insists FFA has to pitch its bid on its sporting and infrastructure benefits. "We'd have to have the bid judged by all the ExCo, not just by who we know on the ExCo".
Whether that is an optimistic and even naive outlook remains to be seen. Gallop says FFA has received positive feedback from its bid from FIFA officials and those in the Asian Football Confederations.
But there are complications. Sports Minister Hunt said the government was satisfied there had been changes at FIFA since its former president Sepp Blatter was banned last year for ethical breaches.
But Blatter's successor Gianni Infantino has also attracted his fair share of negative headlines, particularly the recent ousting of FIFA's ethics committee despite accusations that dozens of corruption investigations into soccer officials had yet to be finalised.
Australia is also still dealing with the fallout from its decision to vote for reform candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan in the FIFA presidential elections last year. The Prince's bid failed and Australia is said to have attracted the ire of Asian soccer powerbrokers, who had put forward Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, in the vote.
Golden opportunity
In sporting terms though, it looms as a golden opportunity for Australian soccer. While the men's national Socceroos team struggles to qualify for next year's World Cup in Russia, their female counterparts the Matildas have been ranked as high as fifth in the world.
The team is ranked eighth and will soon head off to a tournament in the United States before a possible appearance on home soil in September.
"We've got some announcements coming shortly on this, which we think will be exciting," Gallop said, adding that he would like to see more investment in the domestic W-League.
The Professional Footballers' Association has put forward a plan for all W-League teams to receive $175,000 in funding for wages each year and for money to be spent on marquee players from overseas.
It would give the league a boost as it fights with the likes of AFLW and the National Netball League for attention, but the FFA is also in a funding stoush with A-League clubs.
"I think football can walk and chew gum at the same time," Gallop said when asked if the bid was timed to deflect the heat from the owners of the men's clubs.
Time will tell if FFA can do the same when bidding for the 2023 World Cup.
