“We will resume play as soon as possible, and the first stage would see the players return to training,” Johnson said.

“We would then schedule matches. It is difficult to see that process beginning before the end of May, but we will work with all stakeholders to achieve the earliest possible resumption.”

Asked about the future of the A-League’s agreement with Fox Sports, Sage said that the competition had received no word regarding the broadcaster's future commitment and compared the league’s predicament to that of Super Rugby instead of the AFL and NRL.

The Glory owner said league owners were hoping Fox Sports would come to a decision on their commitment to broadcasting games by the end of April but that, should they opt not to broadcast the competition’s remaining fixtures, the season would be abandoned and a new broadcaster would have to be found.

“Let’s take the worst-case scenario, they say ‘no, we’re not interested and we’re not paying you the last because you didn’t finish your season we’re not paying you’, that is the worst-case scenario,” he said.

“We would then have to next season – abandon this season obviously – and for next season, which starts in October, try to find a new broadcast partner that would be available.

“That’s the only option available to us. There’s no other option, you can’t run a sport without being broadcast. A professional sport like ours you can’t do it.

"It’s a very serious situation if Fox decides to walk away.”

Raising the possibility that non-traditional broadcasters such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google or Optus Sport could fill the gap in place of traditional media, Sage then revealed that, prior to the suspension of the A-League, Central Coast Stadium had been considered to serve as a hub for all remaining games on the season.

This, according to the Glory owner, is a concept that could be revived should the league be able to continue with a broadcast agreement.

“The best option for us would be NSW,” Sage said.

“There’s a fantastic little stadium called Bluetongue [Central Coast Stadium] on the Central Coast there.

“It’s a beautiful little stadium, we know we can’t have crowds so it’s not a big stadium, but it would host. That was the plan before the border restrictions had started. I would give a big tick to that.

“It would only take us probably three weeks to finish our season, we’re not as rough and tumble as the rugby and AFL so we can play a game every three days with our squads. That was the plan.

“If it’s not televised there won’t be an end to the season. We’d just abandon it.

“I don’t know how [abandonment] would work, we haven’t discussed it. Who gets points? Do we just put an asterisk next to this year? Not have a champion or even a premier?

“We’re just hoping that Fox comes up with the funds before the end of the month.”