The A-League Men's next Melbourne derby was officially pushed back from March 12 to March 19 this week with no end in sight for the competition when it comes fixturing conflicts.
Despite the best efforts of Melbourne Victory and the A-Leagues, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) turned down requests for Victory's AFC Champions League play-off game against Vissel Kobe on March 15 to be rescheduled which would have allowed them to play the derby as planned.
“It’s a perfect storm in that Victory are playing in Japan, where the vaccination requirements have just changed, on a date that creates a clash with their A-League game,” A-Leagues Commissioner Greg O’Rourke said.
“If they were playing in a different AFC member country this wouldn’t have been an issue, and we have tried hard to secure an exemption to avoid these changes.
“Sadly our efforts were not successful, and so the derby will now be played on March 19.”
Fans of both clubs were left frustrated by the outcome with the official A-League Men (ALM) Twitter account left trying to explain what happened and keep supporters on side with a blockbuster match postponed at late notice.
Hi Matt,
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) March 8, 2022
We are really sorry that's how you feel but we can assure you we are always keeping fans in mind.
This season has presented unprecedented challenges to ensure we get fixtures out, and this weekend is a good example of that.
All the best.
The 2021/22 season has once again been rocked by COVID-19 complications with Perth Glory at one stage going 42 days without playing a game.
With the regular season originally set to end on May 1, the A-Leagues now face an uphill battle to get fixtures completed.
Victory's current situation in the AFC Champions League highlights the extra headaches that await the ALM moving forward.
Melbourne City and Sydney FC have already qualified for the group stages of the continental competition which will see them play three games across the last two weeks of April.
That will make finishing the A-League Men season on time that much harder - particularly if Victory also qualify for the competition.
While City and Sydney have played 16 league matches to date, Tony Popovic's side have completed just 13 leaving them with half a season to play in the space of less than two months.
Australian Professional Leagues boss Danny Townsend has previously hinted that the regular season could be cut to 22 games to ensure the competition doesn't run into June - another option that remains on the table.
“The other option we have is the current 26 games per team could be reduced down to 22 if needed without affecting the integrity of the competition,” Townsend told Keep Up in December.
"That option has been in our top drawer for the last two years but we haven’t needed it to date.
“In terms of when we finish the men’s season – I’m pretty sure we can complete it by end-May, using the options above, but we haven’t taken the option of working with the FA about June off the table.”