Head of the A-League, Greg O’Rourke, says he remains optimistic on gaining exemptions from the NSW Government to get the three Victorian teams out of their home state.
Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory and Western United have twice attempted to leave Victoria only to be rebuffed.
O’Rourke told Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast he’s hopeful of a resolution.
“We’re working on another plan with the NSW Government on exemptions which we’re working on today and we remain optimistic on,” he said.
“Hopefully today we have some more success than we have the past couple of days.
“If we were to receive the exemption, we would move within 24 hours.”
The A-League boss conceded they may have been speaking to the wrong people after receiving assurances the NSW-Victoria border would not close.
“All the conversations we were having were that the NSW-Victorian border was not going to close, and they were over last weekend,” he said.
“We rely on information from Government and people around us.”
O’Rourke revealed the League was caught off-guard by the rapidly moving timelines put in place by state governments.
“Last Friday there was no talk of closing borders and then on Monday we decided to book a charter flight out for Tuesday,” he said.
“At 7pm on Monday night we were advised we only had five hours to leave Melbourne.
“We were planning to take off to Canberra and just before take-off we were advised that Canberra Airport was closed.”
The A-League was scheduled to resume on July 16, although the latest developments may delay the resumption of play.