With a March 31 deadline for a detailed report to FFA, the club needs to secure $2.5m in sponsorship commitments. It's thought that figure is still short by somewhere around $500,000.

The North Queensland Fury "Fighting Force" of local business identities have set up a website www.savethefury.com.au to rally support and pledges of sponsorship.

Fighting Force claims around 8000 hits to the site. They also say an advisory board will be formed to work with the FFA on a future club structure. An announcement on Fury's future is expected in the next week.

"Our goal is to show that we are paving the way towards reaching the $2.5 million in sponsorship commitments needed for the club to continue," Fighting Force spokeswoman Glenys Schuntner said today.

"There are some very positive signs of support amongst the business community and we believe we have a sound business case for the new entity going forward.

"However, we've reached crunch time and we are appealing to any local business owners who have been waiting in the wings, to please come forward and make your support count.

"We have groups of sponsors who have confirmed their package commitments, those who have in-principle committed sponsorships but details are yet to be finalised, those considering sponsorships and those prospects who we have not yet reached in the tight timeframe."

It's unclear what role current and sole owner Don Matheson would have in any future restructure.

But if Fury survives, some local business people with football links have plans for another project in conjunction with the club, although they are staying tight-lipped for the moment on what could be a very exciting initiative.

It was a tumultuous day for the rookie A-League club. In the morning, coach Ian Ferguson was forced to hose down reports Robbie Fowler wanted to replace him as player-coach.

"I don't want to comment because there's been so much rubbish written about this club. I'm not going to say anything other than I've got a three year contract and I've got two years left on it," he told au.fourfourtwo.com.

And in the evening local business leaders were frantically spruiking Fury in a desperate last ditch effort to save the franchise.  

One local Fury fan summed up the feeling. "The amount of work that has already been done must surely count for something," said Matt McGrath.