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However, Johnson said some tough conversations were needed within the game regarding the future of the Socceroos beyond Arnold’s tenure, and the systems and structures that needed to be in place to ensure the proper development of the next generation of players.

Former national team boss Ange Postecoglou, now in charge of Celtic, last week said it was obvious that Australia had “stalled” while the rest of Asia was speeding ahead.

Johnson concurred with this view, saying the declining number of Australians in the world’s top leagues was one of several obvious indicators of the country’s regression, and that changes were needed regardless of if the Socceroos qualify for Qatar.

But he also said more support from other stakeholders was required to pass important reforms that have already been tabled by FA, including a domestic transfer system and national second division, which Johnson sees as critical to the advancement of Australia’s fortunes.

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“I think there are questions we’ve asked over the last two years, ideas we’ve put on the table, and whether we qualify or not, I don’t think that should be the reason to do these changes. We need to do them irrespective of qualification because the evidence is there,” Johnson said.

“Even if we qualify for ’22, you can look at the trend: 2014 was the easiest, 2018 was more difficult, ’22 would have been the hardest for us to qualify. If you look at our youth national team results from over the past 20 years, we haven’t qualified as easy for the youth World Cups or Olympics.

“If you look at the number of youth national teams that we have in Australia and have had for the past 15-20 years, we have 17s, 20s and 23s. Other Asian football nations have youth teams for every single year.

“We know what the solutions are – it is a transfer system, a second division, club licensing systems that focus on football development, more investment in youth development and youth national teams, which means we need to generate more revenues. These are things we need to do and need to be empowered to do, and it requires the whole ecosystem to understand what the issues are and buy into the solutions if we’re going to change our course.”

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As for the Matildas, who suffered a shock quarter-final exit from an Asian Cup they were expected to win, Johnson said Tony Gustavsson’s position as coach was also not under any immediate threat.

“Did we finish where we wanted to finish at the Asian Cup? The answer is no, and we need to figure out why that’s the case so that we can improve the situation as this is the second year of a longer cycle leading into the Women’s World Cup,” he said.

“We ran a similar process after the Tokyo Olympics for both the Olyroos and the Matildas. This is something the business has not done enough of in the past and it is part of a building a learning and growth mindset culture into the business and the sport.”