The A-League owners, some more disgruntled than others, gathered on the weekend in the capital of the UAE to talk about the future of their investments. Oh, and watch the F1. An offer even Nathan Tinkler, it seems, couldn't refuse.

Mutiny? Revolt? Not yet. But it's fair to say at Whitlam Square they'll be wriggling in their seats as they await the outcome. As always, it's about power, and money, which is why the FFA wasn't invited.

Truth is, the FFA was never going to be invited. Ahead of the next broadcast deal (2017) the owners want a bigger share of the A-League pie. Perhaps all of it. The FFA feel there's not a lot left to give. Is there room for compromise? We'll see.

Leading the charge - predictably - is the City Football Group, the new owners of Melbourne City. CFG gets its money from Abu Dhabi, and circulates it via Manchester City. It is at Eastlands where the big football decisions are made. Through the prism of the English Premier League, and all it surveys.

CFG wants to roll out the EPL template in Australia, but at first base it needs the other owners onside. So it has organised a pow-wow in Abu Dhabi to show the way. The way to where, exactly?

The EPL is a marketing triumph but a financial disaster - generating more debt than the rest of European football combined. Among the worst culprits are Manchester City, who just this year were fined £49 million ($88 million) for breaching the new Financial Fair Play rules. Money, clearly, is not a problem for CFG, but it is for many other A-League clubs. Some of the owners who've gathered in Abu Dhabi need to be careful - very careful - what they wish for.

At the heart of this, of course, is who should control the A-League. This is not a new debate. Gradually, over recent years, the FFA has loosened its grip. It had to. There was a distinct lack of understanding, and respect, for the owners from head office for many years.

Incrementally, the clubs have been given more freedom, and since the new broadcast deal they've certainly been given more money. For some clubs, though, it's still not enough. For the likes of CFG, it will never be enough. They want the league owned and run by the clubs, and not the governing body. The argument being this will liberate untold opportunities and riches, just like it has in the EPL.

Excuse me?

There are many issues surrounding the competition on which the owners need to be heard. Fixturing, the import quota, travel subsidies, ground signage, protected sponsorships and having a representative on the FFA board are among them. All of which, potentially, could help their bottom line. But these are small steps, and require hard graft.

The reward for taking the long view is there - Western Sydney Wanderers have proved it. But CFG, it seems, is looking for a short cut. A quick fix.

There is none.

If the model being presented in Abu Dhabi was the Bundesliga, one based on social capital with clubs built from the ground up, there might be a case for an independent A-League. But a model which follows the top-down approach of the EPL, one which only survives on the largesse of super-rich foreign owners and is increasingly removed from geography, demography, and reality, spells disaster in Australia.

If that's what emerges from the Abu Dhabi summit - and I suspect it will be - then in terms of the A-League the FFA might have to brace itself for a fight for survival. That's how much is at stake. Will commonsense, and the common good, prevail in the end? Perhaps. But it's not likely to be pretty in the meantime.