The Wellington Phoenix are already in a pickle before their season kicks off, and general manager David Dome knows it.
Speaking to Brendan Telfer on RadioLIVE's Saturday Sport, Dome says he is in a race against time to convince Football Federation Australia (FFA) to move its opening match of the season to a later date in March.
The Phoenix open their 2016-2017 campaign against Melbourne City on October 8, which falls on an international playing window.
The club is expected to be without at least five first-choice players who could possibly be on All Whites duty with the team facing Mexico in Nashville and the United States in Washington DC.
The Phoenix players who take part in the internationals will return in time to face Perth on October 16, but the players might struggle due to travel.
"From Washington, they have to fly to Perth," says Dome.
"It's a 35-hour flight and they land two days before the match.
"So while they officially miss our first game, it's going to impact us for two."
What is more annoying for the Phoenix and Dome is a split round in the A-League in March to accommodate Australian players taking part in World Cup qualifiers.
This split round in March is when the Phoenix have requested to have their match against Melbourne City moved, but that request was denied by Football Federation Australia, as it did not want the A-League table "out of wack" for the first 22 rounds of the season.
But neither City nor the Phoenix have a game until the backend of the round, which is on March 19. The request was so the Phoenix could host Melbourne on March 11.
The Phoenix could potentially miss Andrew Durante, Kosta Barbarouses, Michael McGlinchey, Tom Doyle, Glen Moss and Louis Fenton, who are reportedly all in the mix for All Whites duty in October.
Earlier today, the Phoenix beat the Central Coast Mariners 2-1 in a pre-season win.
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