Brisbane Roar were thumped 6-0 by Korean side Ulsan, while Western Sydney Wanderers were humbled 5-1 by Shanghai SIPG on Tuesday. The sides had to travel to South Korea and China on a short turnarounds following last weekend's A-League fixtures.
Brisbane faced Ulsan three days after they lost to the Wellington Phoenix, while Western Sydney lost to the Glory on Feb. 26, in Perth, before they travelled on to China.
"I've been speaking to a couple of others about making sure that we have some flexibility around the ACL draw for next year," A-League head Greg O'Rourke told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The packed schedule has been criticised by the players' association, who said there were player welfare issues at stake, while Roar coach John Aloisi said it had affected his side's performance.
"It's only hurting the A-League and it hurt us definitely (against Ulsan)," Aloisi told the Brisbane Courier-Mail.
"Its nearly impossible if they (FFA) don't help with the scheduling of the league. They have to sit down with coaches and clubs and make sure that they learn from these mistakes because we will."
O'Rourke said one of the biggest issues was making sure shared venues were available, with the National Rugby League and AFL Australian Rules competitions starting in March.
The ACL draw was also released about six months after the A-League had finalised their fixtures, O'Rourke said.
"We don't know who were going to be playing in what country and then if we were to move our games, we would have to take into account not only the date that would satisfy the (Champions League) team, but in many cases their opposition," O'Rourke told the Courier-Mail.
"I'd like to think that everyone believes we're doing our best but we've still got some challenges to overcome and we'll continue to work on those for the whole season."
(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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