New Football Federation Australia boss Ben Buckley plans on being his own man as he attempts to turn the sport into the nation's No.1 code.

The AFL power broker has been signed on a four-year deal and will take up the reins at the FFA next month with outgoing boss John O'Neill to depart well before his March deadline.

O'Neill will be a tough act to follow having presided over a golden period for the round ball game in Australia.

Under O'Neill, Australia entered the Asian Confederation and qualified for the Asian Cup, the Socceroos reached the last 16 at this year's World Cup and the domestic A-League was launched.

One of Buckley's first tasks will be finding a national head coach but the departing AFL chief operating officer seemed genuinely excited about his new gig on Wednesday.

Asked if he was going to be his own man, Buckley said: "I would not take this position if I did not think that was going to be the case.

"But as (FFA chairman) Frank (Lowy) said, there is a very talented executive team already working at the FFA and a lot of dedicated and hard working people at all levels, it is not about being your own person it is about being an effective leader and working with your team."

Buckley played a key role in negotiating the AFL's record television rights deal worth some $780 million over five years starting from 2007.

The ex-Kangaroos vice captain's mettle is certain to be tested after friction between hands-on FFA chairman Frank Lowy and O'Neill led to the former Australian Rugby Union supremo announcing his resignation from the FFA in August.

Buckley said he was almost "technically literate" in soccer's off side rule and the international aspect of the sport had been attracted him to the job.

"I think it can certainly become one of the pre-eminent codes, if not the pre-eminent code (in Australia) there is no doubt given the international status of the game it already has an enormous advantage over a number of the other sports in trying to achieve that goal," he said.

Lowy and Buckley were both keen to focus on consolidating the momentum the sport had achieved over the last three years.

"Football is the world game and that has an enormous appeal to me both professionally and personally," Buckley said.

"I am sure there will be many challenges ahead and there will be some hard issues to tackle and some bumps along the way, but it is not a sprint - the game has been around for many years and it will be around for many years to come."

The AFL insider admitted his old bosses had taken notice of soccer's strides in recent times.

"There is no doubt that in recent years that the AFL has sat up and taken notice of the achievements that football has made in this country," he said.

The move to again look beyond the code's borders for its chief executive demonstrated Lowy's lack of confidence in soccer administrators within Australia.

"I think it has been proven that a sports administrator is a sports administrator and to tell you the truth I don't think there are many football or soccer administrators that we could interview ... there were one or two but they did not quite fit the bill," Lowy said.

"But Ben is a young and a new generation of sports administrator."

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