The AFL is likely to increase its investment in South Africa with the potential for several pre-season matches a year there and long-term ambitions for a team to be located there.

The AFL Commission will soon consider a submission from commissioners Sam Mostyn and Colin Carter in collaboration with AFL game development executive David Matthews, to raise the commitment level for South Africa.

The AFL last year approved an increase in investment to $400,000 a year in the country. That commitment has seen a rise in the number of children participating in the local version of AusKick, called Footy Wild, to 7000. But, believing a toe-hold has now been established, the next step in the development process is to establish organised competitions.

"I think the investment has been appropriate to date and I think we have to go back now, having seen where we are at and the potential here, and invest more money in this against some very tight parameters," Mostyn said. "But it is not going to be a whack of money that stops us doing higher development priorities.

"And the money might not all come from AFL. You think about what your other sources of funding might be and there's obvious reasons why what we are doing should be attractive to large Australian companies with connections in South Africa."

Carter agreed with the need for increased AFL investment and for the corporate sponsorship market to be further explored.

"For it to be successful there is certainly going to be more of an ask of the AFL, but equally we have not tackled the corporate sector and I would be astonished if some of the mining companies out of Australia can't look to do something like this in the communities in which they operate," Carter said.

Fremantle recently signed a $200,000 sponsorship deal with mining company Nkwe and has received commitments in the past fortnight for a further $300,000 in sponsorships. The AFL's government relations executive Phil Martin met last week with a range of company heads and government officials here about further investment opportunities in football in South Africa with extremely promising responses at a corporate level among miners, but also some enthusiasm from Austrade and AusAID.

"Colin (Carter) and I will have some questions we need answering of the executive back home and the staff here about the level of investment required and we want to make sure we apply proper financial rigour to it," Mostyn said.

Carter, who has long been a staunch supporter of South Africa's potential, said: "It is in no way an AFL Commission position, but I do believe it is achievable that a team is based here in 15 to 20 years time."