But the decision came too late for Fury who had already brought their team down from Townsville for the game.

Fury have already had their head coach Franz Straka and his assistant Stuart McLaren suspended for this game - and stand-in trainer Mark Bosnich was also dropped from the bench by FFA restrictions today.

But the late cancellation has proved to be the final straw for the club and its CEO Rabieh Krayem.

"This situation is an absolute disgrace," he said tonight. "Whoever is in charge at Newcastle Knights for hiring out the stadium should be held responsible for this and if they worked for me, they wouldn’t anymore.

“To host a motocross event less than two weeks before an A-League football match is just mindboggling."

He added: "Having worked with Dairy Farmers Stadium (Townsville) for over a decade, this situation would not have happened, as the stadium understands the requirements of both events and how one could affect the other.

“This motocross event was held on October 16 and stadium officials would have been aware of the damage long before today, so a decision on our fixture should have been made by Monday at the very latest.

“The state of the pitch is beyond a disgrace and is certainly not fit to hold any football match, let alone the country’s premier football competition.

“It’s astonishing that Football Federation Australia were only made aware of the situation today and that no thought was given by anyone as to where the opposition were travelling from.

“We only received a message this afternoon (Tuesday) when we were flying between Brisbane and Newcastle, so this situation is totally unacceptable and questions need to be asked on many levels.”