A-League Women's referees were forced to officiate all of last season uncontracted, as Football Australia took more than three months to produce any contracts.
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Similarly the A-League Men's officiated for about 21 weeks without contracts, as FA handed them over three weeks before the start of the finals series.
Action by the Professional Football Referees Association to try and change this could affect the seven ACT referees chosen to officiate the two leagues.
PFRA president Paul Cetrangolo said last season was not the first instance of this, and it was why they were putting it to FA to produce contracts before the season got underway.
"Nobody in Australia works with an employer without either an agreement or a contract in place, except for match officials on the highest leagues in this country. So this is why this year we have taken a stand and we said 'enough's enough, we want a contract before the start of the season'," he said.
"We've always continued on because we don't want to hold the game up in this country, because we understand the importance ... but we're now at a point where we say no."
PFRA released a statement on Tuesday revealing members would not officiate FFA Cup or ALM, ALW pre-season games after more than three months of discussions and efforts with FA to resolve issues.
Cetrangolo said conversations had been had since the stalemate was aired but nothing had been resolved.
"I'm not expecting it to be resolved immediately," he said.
"There will probably be some negotiations, especially about the contract issues, but the issues regarding the members that have been stood down or not added back to panels and so forth, that stuff is probably going to take a few days or maybe a bit more time to go through but we're confident that we'll get through it with a suitable outcome."
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FA still has time to deal with the concerns, with the ALM due to kick off on November 19 and ALW on December 3.
Whilst there were concerns about FFA Cup fixtures, non-PFRA referees will officiate those.
All ALM referees are members of PFRA, but only a handful of ALW are members are, as the association only incorporated the ALW and ALY into its constitution this year.
Another issue raised was reinstating the referee A-Leagues leadership and coaching department - as their contracts were not renewed when the leagues unbundled from the FA in July - as refs had had no direction, coaching/instruction or fitness coaching in pre-season.
PFRA also wants to address the dismissal of three referees from the A-Leagues refereeing panels without prior communication, including one who only months earlier had officiated the ALM grand final.
Cetrangolo said the trio received no performance management, any communication their spot was in doubt and were not told at any stage they had to improve, which PFRA took trouble with.
"When they were notified by Football Australia, it came as a complete surprise, and that's the thing that really doesn't sit right with us," he said.