The pay-TV broadcaster sparked fears it had ditched the A-League when it ran weeks late on its final payment of the season to the FFA, only coming through with the cash last week.

But the future of the Fox Sports TV deal still hangs in the balance after the A-League, like other sports, ground to a halt because of the coronavirus crisis.

The broadcaster has been keen to renege on its six year $300m-plus deal with the FFA after just three seasons after dwindling ratings and massive cutbacks at Fox Sports HQ.

But while some fear Fox Sports walking away might spell disaster for the top tier, the players' union is confident it would simply be a catalyst for positive change.

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"I've got zero doubt that we can preserve a top level elite professional competition," PFA chief executive John Didulica tells the new FTBL Year Zero podcast.

"It's always hard to speculate what Fox may or may not do. I think they've been a really incredible partner for the last 15 years.

"We just have to believe in our game - we have to have the self-confidence in the sport, in our product that if, worst case scenario, we lose our broadcast partner, we can replace them and move on."

But Didulica concedes that may mean fundamental changes to the A-League we've known since 2005.

"That might require an economic shift, it might require a correction," he says. "Whatever happens, we can always reposition who we are.

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"The game itself will carry on, we just need to work a little bit more strategically and co-operatively as a sport – and that would be a good thing.

"The game is robust - support one another and we can navigate this. I'm really confident about that – but no one stakeholder can do it by themselves.

"It needs to be done in collaboration and a really trusting way."

The Fox Sports TV deal effectively covers most of each club's salary cap and without that some clubs may struggle to survive.

Didulica adds: "If we have to scale down what we do, that's fine. A lot of nations have scaled down and repositioned themselves over time. The world of football has changed.