Owner Clive Palmer has been at war with the FFA in recent weeks that escalated into a lengthy defence of the governing body by FFA chairman Frank Lowy yesterday.

Palmer has slammed the FFA for a lack of transparency and not helping club owners enough, calling for a new A-League governing body run by the owners.

He raised the stakes again over the weekend by ignoring an FFA directive not to put Freedom Of Speech logos on the club's kits and on signage around theirt ground for the weekend game against Melbourne Victory.

Yesterday Lowy hit back, and called Gold Coast a "spectacular failure", and would offer no promises on the club's future.

Just before an FFA press conference was due to start, Palmer took to Twitter to announce: " Our licence is being rekoved by Frank Lowy and FFA cohorts .. I will issue detailed response shortly."

He later added: "We intend to fight this ludicrous decision by incompetent FFA in the courts.

"Frank Lowy is an institution who now belongs in an institution"

The FFA said the termination has been made following at least three alleged breaches of the agreement in recent days:

1. A conscious and deliberate contravention of FFA Policies and Procedures.

2. Deliberate defiance of a direction that was given by FFA; and

Lowy today said he was disappointed that FFA had been left with no alternative than to terminate Gold Coast United’s licence.

"The material breach on Saturday night was followed by a statement from the club that it intended to continue using the slogan," said Lowy.

“This behavior came on top of public comments that displayed a total lack of respect for football and the millions of Australians who love the game.

"Such disrespectful behavior, a flagrant disregard for the rules and a stated intent to continue breaking the rules made for an intolerable situation.

“As custodians of the game, we had to act to protect the integrity of the Hyundai A-League on behalf of the other nine clubs, players, coaches and most importantly, the fans.”

During the past four weeks Gold Coast United has on several occasions expressed to FFA its strong intention to leave the competition but during the same period issued contradictory statements that it intends to remain in the competition while at the same time continuing to breach FFA policies.

FFA said they had exhausted attempts with the owner of Gold Coast United to facilitate an orderly process under which the club could complete its remaining fixtures in the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League season and comply with its obligations under the Club Participation Agreement.

Lowy said he made repeated attempts this morning to talk directly with Palmer to appeal to him to allow a smooth completion of the season and a dignified exit from the game for Palmer. These calls went unanswered, said the FFA.

FFA’s priority now is to explore options to field a Gold Coast team for the remaining four matches of its season. This would avoid any impact on the standing of the remaining nine clubs and be the fairest outcome for the competition, clubs, players and fans, said the FFA.

Lowy appealed to the football community, including owners of the other nine clubs, to use whatever influence possible to encourage Mr Palmer to allow a smooth and fair outcome to the season.

“FFA will exhaust every practical option to have Gold Coast finish the season,” he said.

FFA CEO Ben Buckley said all practical steps to enable a Gold Coast team to complete the season would be explored, including:

• Talking directly with Gold Coast players to encourage them to enter into arrangements with FFA to play the final four games of the season.

• FFA to pay the players for appearing in these games.

• Possible postponement of Sunday’s scheduled match between Gold Coast and Wellington Phoenix.

“If we need extra time to put in place the necessary arrangements then we will consider postponing the match,” he said.

A-League General Manager Lyall Gorman is already on the Gold Coast to talk with players and make arrangements for the season to continue unimpeded.

“The players are just one of the many innocent victims in all this and FFA will do its best to enable them to see out their playing season on the pitch," said Buckley.

“They deserve that opportunity at the very least.”

The notification of today's 2pm press conference came literally moments after a media statement from Gold Coast United that appeared to offer an olive branch to Lowy and the FFA.

Palmer said he applauded Mr Lowy’s contribution to football in Australia over more than 50 years.

“We may not always agree but I respect what he has done for the game and he is a great Australian icon,” he said in the club press release.

“We have had some issues with FFA and made some criticisms but this is just contributing to the debate about football in this country and is designed to only make the game better.

“Any ideas to contribute to change can only be beneficial.”

But Palmer said he still disagreed with FFA’s opposition to Gold Coast United using ‘Freedom of Speech’ signage at its home ground Skilled Park and on its jerseys.

“The message has been used in place of Hyatt branding as we are in a legal dispute with that company and I can’t see anything wrong with such a simple but meaningful statement such as the right to freedom of speech,” he said.