The 2019-20 A-League season is set to resume in mid-July following a coronavirus-enforced break, Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced.
On Thursday, the FFA, the A-League clubs and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) signed off on plans to resume training in mid-June and start playing games by mid-July.
The league was suspended in March by the coronavirus pandemic with a handful of regular season rounds, plus finals, remaining.
For the Wellington Phoenix to take part, they'll likely need government approval to fly into Australia and complete a two-week quarantine, similar to what the NZ Warriors have done to compete in the NRL.
However, the final proposal, which would see the league and finals series wrapped up within a month, needs to be approved by broadcasters Fox Sports.
Getting Fox Sports to sign off may yet be challenging with the pay-television broadcaster reportedly seeking a substantial rebate on its existing rights deal.
FFA chief executive James Johnson is hopeful Fox Sports will sign off on the deal.
"We are committed to delivering the completion of the A-League season and have agreed [on] a comprehensive plan with the clubs and the PFA," he said.
"All parties have worked together extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure the professional game is ready to resume.
"We are now looking forward to the agreement of our broadcast partner, Fox Sports, to our fixture proposal and timings. That's the final piece of the jigsaw and once we have it in place we can move forward quickly."
Australia's other major football codes have already announced their resumption, with rugby league kicking off on Thursday, while Australian Rules and rugby union will resume on July 11 and July 3 respectively.
The FFA aims to complete the remainder of the A-League season in 35 days, with A-League head Greg O'Rourke flagging "football content seven days a week".
Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a Sydney hub would be set up to complete the remaining fixtures at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Kogarah and WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
"The hub strategy means that we have a unique opportunity to showcase the A-League through a different lens and we will be including new and innovative elements to the matchday broadcast experience," said O'Rourke.
"Our focus is also on optimising the broadcast flow and therefore providing football content seven days a week. We believe that there are great opportunities for our broadcast partner and therefore the fans."
The league will implement a number of safety and testing protocols to ensure the season is able to be completed.
When the season was halted back in March, Sydney FC had an eight-point lead over Melbourne City, with the Phoenix in third.
