Football Federation Australia has decided not to push round one of the upcoming A-League season back to cater for potential New Zealand internationals or Socceroos' World Cup qualifying play-offs.
It's long been a bone of contention among clubs that the A-League is one of the world's few domestic competitions that doesn't break for FIFA windows, leaving coaches without key players.
The situation is particularly bad for Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory, whose squads are regularly shorn of Kiwi internationals.
Should Australia finish third in their qualifying group, Ange Postecoglou's national team will face arduous play-off rounds starting with home and away games against another Asian nation on October 5 and 10.
If New Zealand win their Oceania qualifying final against the Solomon Islands in late August, they will play the fifth-placed South American side home and away on November 6 and 14.
While FFA has in the past stood firm in the face of calls to include international breaks, A-League chief Greg O'Rourke revealed the governing body had closely examined the possibility of doing so next season, at least for round one.
But after internal talks and communication with the Phoenix, it decided to stay "consistent with what we've done before".
"Depending on how Australia goes in World Cup qualifying we could find ourselves with round one sitting in the middle of one or two play-offs," O'Rourke said.
"We considered this at length, and one of the conversations we had was actually moving round one to be one week later.
"But when you go through the pros and cons of that and the situation is if, as we hope, Australia qualify and those qualifying rounds are not required, then there's a week of dead air in respect to the NRL and AFL is finished and the A-league is not present.
"Our want is not to be waiting for those qualifiers.
"But if they do happen, make it a mammoth football week where we've got Australia playing international qualifying followed by the opening round."
