Football Federation Australia had appeared tyo sanction the competition which would have seen the Victorian state league sides battle it for the chance to face Heart or Victory in the latter stages of the competition.

The competition sponsored by former Heart director Joe Mirabella was intended to break down some of the barriers and animosity that had built up between A-League and local clubs in the wake of the NSL's demise.

The early stages of the tournament are already underway, but today it was revealed the FFA had now reversed its earlier decision and ordered the A-League clubs to withdraw.

The FFA are concerned the involvement of Heart and Victory playing competitively against the lower league sides may take the sheen off their planned FFA Cup and the David and Goliath battles that may bring.

But the move has infuriated the clubs involved.

Melbourne Heart chief executive Scott Munn has already promised his side will play a friendly against the eventual winner of the Mirabella Cup, with all proceeds being kept by the local club.

And new Melbourne Victory CEO Anthony di Pietro said the decision was taken out of the clubs' hands and enforced by the FFA, despite the club looking forward to taking part in the competition.

"It’s not going to happen in the short term," di Pietro told SEN's The Run Home . “This certainly wasn’t a decision of ours.

"Us and Heart were well and truly happy to be part of this and looking forward to joining the cup. The FFA are now working on an FFA Cup, similar to the FA Cup in the UK and that is proposed to be rolled out in the following year.

“We understand that was the reasoning behind the FFA not allowing us to be part of the Dockerty Cup."

He added: “Obviously it’s disappointment because we would have liked to be a part of this, this year. But there is a longer term goal that the FFA has.

“I don’t think the FFA and the FFV are working apart on this, I think they are working closely together, it’s just that the timing hasn’t been appropriate.

On the exclusion not looking good on the game: “It’s not preferable. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a say in that.”

Today the FFA defended the U-turn.

“Since the initial discussions about Victory and Heart participating in the Mirabella Cup, the landscape has changed significantly,” said an FFA spokesman.

“In the past few months consideration of a national FFA Cup has been warmly embraced by the Hyundai A-League clubs and Member Federations.

"Work is underway to develop the ideas into a viable plan that would connect the grassroots to the national professional competition in a way that’s never been achieved before."

The spokesman added: “Clearly, the key ingredient in these knock-out competitions is the ‘David v Goliath’ factor, which needs to be carefully packaged to appeal to fans, sponsors and broadcasters on a national scale.

“Having one state and two A-League clubs pre-empt a truly national cup competition is liable to erode the work that has been done and diminish that essential ingredient.

"Many stakeholders want to see the FFA Cup come to life and we need to give the idea every chance of success.”