The meeting at the club's Windsor Park base represents the latest step in the make-up of the statewide soccer competition for 2016-18.

At present, the league consists of eight teams: five from Hobart, two from Launceston and Devonport representing the North-West. In a bid to avoid the competition becoming a closed shop, Football Federation Tasmania identified two clubs — Launceston City and Glenorchy Knights — that would be required to reapply for their licence while other interested clubs were invited to express an interest.

CEO Mike Palmer said five other clubs had done so, one of which was from Launceston. Riverside is that club.

This means that in Riverside, Launceston City and Northern Rangers, Launceston has one club aspiring to join the competition, one fighting to stay in it and a third already locked in.

All interested clubs are required to meet some mandatory criteria which the Riverside meeting will outline before the club decides whether it submits the V-League application.

Olympic spokesman and former president Jamie Colgrave said the club had discussed the matter at committee level, expressed an interest and met with FFT officials, and it had until the end of June to decide whether to proceed.

"As a club we have got to address what needs to be done to see if we are going to put in an application," Colgrave said.

"To be making such a huge decision, we thought we needed to go beyond just the committee because it's going to take a lot of support.

"I want our players to aspire to play at the highest level and I would want them to do that playing for Riverside, not another team."

With an expectation for the club to continue fielding sides in the Northern Championship, reserves and under-18s, player recruitment would be a challenge.

But Colgrave said the club's record-breaking junior ranks provided a solid foundation, with success stories including Luke Eyles, who played under-six to under-14s with Riverside before joining the NTC program in Hobart and being picked up by South Melbourne in the Victorian Premier League.

"Luke was a junior with us and went to the NTC because there was no Victory League side here. His dad, Andrew, was our junior president.

"The junior ranks is where we see the future and if we have a pathway up to the V-League, they will not need to go outside the West Tamar area."

Junior club president Jeremy Smith said Riverside had 36 teams playing in the Northern Tasmanian Junior Soccer Association, involving 397 players, beating the club record of 380 and closing in on the association record of 440.

Colgrave said having not applied for the original V-League three years ago, the club wanted to assess where it stood.

"It's a pretty big decision. Even if we are not successful, at least we are going through the due diligence process and trying to do the right thing for the kids."

Launceston City is in the contrasting position of having effectively been put on notice by FFT.

President Austin Fagan said the Prospect club was putting together a submission to reapply for its licence following discussions with FFT about contractual obligations. "We will know either way by July 17 but we're very positive that we'll be in the state league from 2016 to 18," he said.

"We have always been involved with any state league. We were the last remaining Northern team to stay in the state league when it folded in 1998, so we were travelling every second week and we were unfortunate not to win it that year.

"Our club's been going since 1958 and we've always had a good association with the state league."

Despite struggling in each season of the V-League, Fagan said the club was beginning to reap the rewards of developments during that time and had the support of other league clubs.

He understood the need for FFT to open up league admission.

"I agree with it in principle. A few clubs were aggrieved when they did not get in originally, so it's good for FFT to say it's not a closed shop."

Northern Rangers president Mark Jefferson also welcomed the reapplication process, which FFT had flagged when the original V-League agreement was signed.

"Anywhere you see promotion and relegation you see a stronger competition, and it's important that Northern and Southern championship clubs have the ability to strive for greater things," he said.

"The seven clubs involved will be wiser for the process."

With Rangers and Devonport among the six clubs assured of continued participation, the future competition make-up could be anything from a four-four North-South split (should both City and Olympic get approved) to a six-two Hobart bias (if they both miss out).

Jefferson likes the existing geographical make-up.

"It's a good mix. We would like more Northern teams for sure but would they make the competition stronger? I would think not. Not at the expense of one less from Hobart - I don't think that would be a good move.

"Two is sustainable and Launceston needs two V-League teams. Although City have not had the best time in the competition, they have a stronger history and have been around a lot longer than us. They are also starting to get a few wins on the board.

"I don't think the North-West can hold another team effectively and the population is in Hobart."