The dispute has weakened two A-League clubs with Perth Glory missing new recruits Josh Mitchell and Michael Baird for this Friday night's clash with North Queensland Fury while Joshua Rose will miss Central Coast Mariners' opener against Melbourne Heart tonight for the same reason.

All three previously played for Universitatea Craiova in Romania last season but opted to move away after a pay dispute with the club.

Head of the PFA Brendan Schwab says the rogue Romanian club can't legally hold up the players' ITC because the period of which the players weren't paid was longer than three months. As a result, the players terminated their contracts.

The Romanian club subsequently denied the ITCs because they argued the players were contracted.

The matter was referred to FIFA by the PFA some time ago but there is such a volume of cases that it looks highly unlikely that this will be resolved before the season kicks off.

The three players are now caught in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare. And Schwab said the FFA also could've done more to expedite the situation.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com: "There can be no doubt that the contracts were validly terminated because the non-payment extended beyond the three months.

"FIFA makes it clear that when payment has been outstanding for that period of time, players can terminate their contracts and seek employment elsewhere."

In extreme cases, these disputes can go on for as long as two years however PFA are confident the matter to be resolved within the coming days. But Schwab is still angry it's come to this.

"The delay is unacceptable," he added. "Through the obstinacy of the club in Romania and the slow processing of the paperwork within Australia at FFA, it's contributed to this situation which is no fault of the players.

"It's unacceptable."