The 15th of the month is pay day for the club's players and staff and it's understood all have been paid.

However, what remains unclear is the club's new owners with no imminent news on the club's potential new Russian investment.

Two representatives of a Russian businessman with ownership links to at least one Moscow-based football club spent two weeks in Australia in December.

The pair spent time in Gosford and with the FFA in Sydney doing due diligence before returning to Russia to report back with their findings.

It was said at the time that a decision was likely around the last two weeks of January.

Last month, one FFA insider described this potential investment in the financially ailing A-League club a “promising” although the amount of ownership is not yet known.

But FFA Chairman Frank Lowy made it clear in a recent speech that the FFA were no longer in the business of bailing out A-League clubs with interim ownership deals.

It was this, he said, which contributed to the FFA posting a small operating loss in the last year after the national body had bailed out a handful of other A-League clubs before fresh investment was found.

“This is not a sustainable approach,” he said late last year at the announcement of the FFA's latest strategic plan.

The ongoing financial talk hasn’t affected the Mariners who continue to burn up the league, sitting six points clear atop of the competition after 16 games.

The favourites for the Premiership play Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park this Wednesday night.

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