With Russian and UAE clubs courting Kewell, 32, ahead of Holger Osieck announcing his first World Cup squad early next week, the veteran Socceroo desperately needs to be playing for a club.

It’s understood the Socceroo star’s representative Bernie Mandic spoke with FFA on the weekend, but no deal with Melbourne Victory or Sydney FC has yet been signed, just six weeks out from the start of the season.

“The ball’s back in their court,” said one source close to the deal. “It’s time. This has been going 100 days. People know what’s on the table.”

Today, FFA CEO Ben Buckley stuck to the nFFA's gun on the issue of standard player contracts, which provides ''protected status'' to FFA’s key commercial partners Qantas, Hyundai and Optus.

This protection allows FFA to extract maximum value from the sponsorships.

The FFA insist previous A-List marquees Dwight Yorke and Robbie Fowler both agreed to the same terms currently before Kewell and that he's still free to sign deals with firms that are not in competition with HAL and FFA sponsors.

The FFA say they have also offered him an "unprecedented" contract to help market the A-League.

However, it's understood there was never any deal involving away games revenues – with a split of any additional gate revenue from away games that Kewell played - formally discussed with the FFA, said insiders. This was just an idea floated publicly by Mandic, they say.

But with the image rights deal still undecided, contract talks are deadlocked as the clock ticks.

“The use of image rights and the protected status of key commercial partners (Qantas, Hyundai, Optus) are a fundamental in allowing football to extract value from sponsorship and fund the competition," state the FFA. 

“The centralised model funds all administration, marketing, travel and accommodation for the A-League clubs. An exemption for one player would be liable to undermine the “common good”, that is, one player and one club accrue commercial benefits at the expense of the other nine clubs and 200+ players.

“And how do you stop at one if Brett Emerton, Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill return to Australia?”

But the insider stressed: "The FFA wants to see Harry Kewell and other current Socceroos playing in the Hyundai A-League and has supported its member clubs in the pursuit of such players."