A-LEAGUE boss Damien de Bohun has welcomed the North Queensland Fury's rebirth and plans to return to the elite level.
While the club, which has been rebranded as the Northern Fury, is only in its early stages and will come back through the Australian Premier League next year, de Bohun said it was already ticking plenty of boxes.
The Fury were axed from the A-League after just two seasons at the end of the 2010/11 campaign.
But under the guidance of former chief executive Rabieh Krayem and NQ Football president Greg Redington, a business plan and timeline has been devised with a 2017 return to the national competition slated.
After the Fury were thrown together hastily in their previous life, de Bohun said the extended plan was an excellent start.
"Taking time to build a strong foundation to demonstrate over an extended period and build a business case that there is a serious and viable market at an A-League level, is obviously the sort of thing that we would look at when assessing opportunities down the track," de Bohun said.
Having learnt from past mistakes, Northern are starting from the ground up.
The Fury will be the name of all NQ representative teams from under-12s, creating a strong sense of identity and a player pathway.
Football Queensland are behind the rebirth, which also aims to have a Fury team playing the National Youth League by 2014.
"There is no doubt that the future success of the A-League and the W-League will be predicated on the extent on which we build meaningful relationships with member federations," de Bohun said.
"That enables us to convert the huge number of participants into genuine transit into the competition, so that side of the way they have gone about it is pleasing and holds them in good stead."
Brisbane are Queensland's only representative in the A-League and de Bohun said the lack of representation in the North left a major void.
"I do get that it is a geographically and demographically disperse state, with the largest number of people living outside a capital city in any state in Australia," he said.
De Bohun said past failures would not count against the Fury if and when they were considered for inclusion in an expanded A-League.
"Does that disqualify from being considered in the future? The answer is definitely, no," he said.
While the Fury have a five-year plan, de Bohun said the immediate focus was on ensuring the success of the league's current 10 teams.
"The rate or speed of success will have a major bearing on any consideration for expansion down the track," he said.
