THE AFL had become stronger as a direct result of the soccer threat, according to chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou.

He said the increasing popularity of soccer had prompted the AFL to work harder to spread its influence and recent record figures underscored its dominance among football codes.

Demetriou said ways to counter soccer's appeal were discussed at AFL Commission level and plans to answer the challenge had been in place for a decade.

"As a general principle I think having competition is a good thing for the AFL," he told radio SEN.

"It makes all of us who work there and everyone involved at club land actually want to do things better.

"I think it drives the success of the competition.

"Since the introduction of the A-League and of course the popularity of the ARU and the NRL, we've grown.

"We've grown our talent pool, we've grown our crowd, we've had record memberships," he said.

Demetriou said the AFL had in place "a multi-faceted attack".

"It probably goes back 10 years ago when through (former league CEOs) Ross Oakley and Wayne Jackson they set up a game development area," he said.

"We're now spending $22 million to $24 million at AFL level and the states are spending another 20 so that's 40-odd million dollars.

"We're out there promoting the game to the tune of $40 million a year ... and there wouldn't be another code that could spend that amount of money.

"That investment we put in 10 years ago which we've now accelerated is starting to see the rewards.

"You're creating fans, huge participation. We're growing faster than the population growth.

"Last year we had 638,000 people participate in the game, which is the highest participation of any code."

Demetriou pointed to last year's figures, with record attendances, TV ratings and revenue, plus more players being drafted from Queensland.

His comments come as the AFL prepares to introduce new teams on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney.

Both growth areas are also being targeted by the A-League.

"We're now increasing this investment into New South Wales and Queensland for the next generation," Demetriou said.

However, he conceded more work needed to be done to improve relations between the league and club coaches.

"I don't think we've got our relationship where it should be," he said.

"I don't think we've given the absolute recognition to the coaches that they deserve – and I think that's been a fault on both sides."