Gold Coast City eye NYL, A-League

Queensland state league outfit Palm Beach Sharks is set to change its name to Gold Coast City in an attempt to join an expanded National Youth League and, perhaps one day, the A-League.

The move by Palm Beach, last year's National Premier Leagues Queensland champions and two-time participants in the FFA Cup, is part of a strategy to garner broader support across the region and galvanise the football and business communities behind the club.

It has already won approval from Football Queensland to make the change but will run it past members at a meeting on Tuesday night.

The Gold Coast City name is not new, as the club, established in 1966, went by the same moniker while previously competing in other Brisbane and state competitions.

While an A-League licence is a far longer term goal, a more realistic proposition is entry into the NYL, which it's understood Football Federation Australia is considering expanding as it attempts to broaden its base of elite-level juniors.

The Gold Coast, which remains the biggest market in the country without an A-League presence, has already been discussed as a possible addition.

The NYL, which kicks off this weekend, has been condensed this season into a 10-game, two-conference structure, which could easily accommodate new teams and allow FFA to examine them closely as possible future A-League expansion candidates.

Football powerbrokers on the Gold Coast have been quietly working in the background to ensure the health of the grassroots game didn't suffer for the ugly demise of A-League club Gold Coast United in 2012, and have united behind Palm Beach, believing the NYL is an option worth exploring.

However, the crux of their plan is to entrench Gold Coast City as a powerhouse at state-league level and as a business, using the FFA Cup to build a level of national prominence, before pursuing any loftier ambitions such as the A-League.