Neill urges A-League finals move Floating an idea: Socceroos captain Lucas Neill in warm-up mode. Socceroos captain Lucas Neill has urged Football Federation Australia and the A-League to time next season's domestic competition to finish in May to allow for the nation's locally based World Cup players to arrive in Brazil ready for action - should Australia qualify for its third consecutive World Cup. Neill said the current situation, where the A-League competition finished in late April - long before the crucial World Cup qualifiers in June - was not ideal and needed to be addressed when the 2013-14 draw was formulated. "While we still have three very tough teams to get past to qualify for Brazil, it'd be great for the people who operate the A-League competition to try and co-operate with the national team and have one eye on the World Cup," he said. That would mean if there were any internationals played during the A-League season, they'd allow a week off where there were no games. It'd be ideal to have had a week or fortnight's break [from competition]. If [FFA] did that next season we wouldn't be playing our finals in April, we'd play them in May. Neill said the advantage of finishing next season in May was that it would allow Australian-based World Cup players to be match-ready for Brazil. He added a well-prepared Socceroos squad would reap rewards FFA could not ignore. As a footballer, my advice to the corporate and commercial people of the FFA is to maximise Australia's opportunity and have the biggest impact from a playing point of view. The fringe benefits in having Australia make the World Cup is it'd be easier to sell the commercial value the FFA is after. My advice is play the next A-League season until the end of April or May and allow more A-League players the chance to get to the World Cup and to also allow people to attain a fitness level that can be carried into June. Neill appreciated his plan would probably not sit well with the A-League's broadcasters, but he believed the code was in a strong state and now had "muscle." "OK, [the suggestion] mightn't be appealing in a television or broadcast perspective because we're competing with other codes," he said. But I think we have enough muscle now where we're stand-alone and can compete for crowds against other football codes, especially near finals time. If the finals are staged in May, some of us will have four weeks off while others will have two [off] going into Brazil. Neill, whose return to Australia with Sydney FC was frustrated by a calf injury, said he would like to play in the A-League again because of "unfinished business." The reason why I don't want to make a decision [on whether to return to the A-League next season] is because there is this gap now between April and June. I wanted to concentrate on getting Australia to a World Cup before I made my decision ... if I was to get Australia to the World Cup, [the A-League] might not be the most appealing [place to play] in terms of the playing timetable. Neill, whose stint with Sydney FC officially ends in a couple of days, is considering returning to the Middle East to train. He said there had also been talk of training camps in May for the local Socceroos. "I have enough to do before June to keep me ticking over," he said. I'll get no match practice before Japan unless we organise some behind-closed-door friendlies. At my age, and in my position, match fitness is good but it's not key. I have been around for long enough now to know I can get close to match fitness without physically getting into a match.