Canberra United coach Antoni Jagarinec admits that the lack of a pay agreement within the A-League Women (ALW) has made his team's pre-season "wildly challenging".
With United finally relishing in a period of stability after new owners salvaged the club from an ALW departure, Jagarinec and his side have had another hurdle to overcome.
Both the A-League Men and ALW look set to begin their seasons without a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in place.
AAP revealed in July that players had voted against two proposed agreements, making Australia's top footballing leagues the only major competitions in the country without a CBA.
"It (pre-season) was wildly challenging ... I've stood in front of you guys lots of times and argued that what we pay our athletes is nowhere near enough," the coach said.
"But especially in the female A-League space, the timing of it was extremely challenging.
"We've had to have lots of hard conversations about promises that we made that have fallen over. We've had to shift and pivot a fair bit and really quickly."
Jagarinec said he hoped an agreement would be struck soon but, regardless, the mentor is happy he has a team to coach after the Australian Sports Group (ASG) took ownership of Canberra's licence in July.
United won't be the only team to have new owners in the ALW after Central Coast were rescued by the Holman Barnes Group.
"From a club point of view, it definitely is going to be a fresh chapter from the management up, which is really exciting," Jagarinec said.
"There are things we talk about to make the environment better, to make the game day experience better, to make community football ... have more growth."
While the women's team is front of mind for the coach, the new owners have previously flagged that they will have first rights to introduce a men's side for the 2028/29 season, subject to passing Football Australia's statutory checks.
A potential boost for an ALM side in the nation's capital came on Wednesday after a consortium of Canberra business bigwigs pitched a new roofed rectangular stadium in the city.
There are a multitude of issues to be sorted out, including who will build the 25,000-seater venue after the consortium said they plan to purchase the land but not construct or own the stadium.
Regardless, it's a glimmer of hope for Canberra considering the current GIO Stadium has faced stern criticism over its ageing facilities.
"It's progression for soccer and for all codes in Canberra," Jagarinec said.
"There's lots of talk about GIO and all those things that (we) don't go there enough to have an opinion on, but brand new state-of-the-art facilities is what I'd like to see."
