The South Coast yesterday declared "game on" in its bid for an A-League club, as it squares up to the higher-profile attempts of Melbourne and western Sydney to take places in any expanded competition.With Socceroos Tim Cahill and Scott Chipperfield in their corner, the consortium behind the South Coast bid claim they have 85 per cent of the financial backing needed to satisfy Football Federation Australia's (FFA) entry requirements. The Wollongong-based bidders want a place in the second wave of A-League expansion earmarked for the 2010-11 season. Gold Coast and Townsville will bolster the competition to 10 teams next season, and South Coast FC, along with a second team in Melbourne and a team from western Sydney want a place in a 12-team competition the following year. The FFA announced last week a Melbourne consortium had been granted exclusive negotiating rights to become the second Victorian team. While it doesn't guarantee Melbourne another club, it does make it more likely South Coast FC will be vying with western Sydney and Canberra for the other expansion spot. South Coast chairman Eddy de Gabriele said his team's bid was well advanced, well organised, and well supported both at grassroots level and by high-profile Socceroos from the region. "In about a month's time the FFA will approach us and give us a formal checklist of what needs to be done, and by January we have to come back with those fulfilments that are required," de Gabriele said. "We're extremely well advanced. We're about 80 per cent there to finalising the checklist of things we can be in control of, about 85 per cent with the financial guarantees. "We're all senior business people in this community, and we know what it takes to present a business case." Chipperfield, who made his name at the Wollongong Wolves in the old National Soccer League, is a bid spokesman and Cahill has decided to establish a soccer academy in the region. De Gabriele is confident a Wollongong-based A-League club would be the right fit for the competition. "The best thing we can do is prepare our submission so well and make it so compelling that it's hard to say no."