Northern Inland Football chairman Phil Davis has said the organisation will continue to work hard to make sure that "when it's time to reinvigorate football we will be right there ready to go", but it has had to take drastic steps to ensure its viability in the current COVID-19 climate.
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Facing the prospect of very poor cash flow for the next few months, NIF had to stand down some of its staff, he said.
"Unfortunately our general manager and our operations officer have been made redundant, in the interest of protecting the business," Davis told The Leader.
The organisation's main income comes from registrations, Davis said, adding that it makes up about 80 per cent of NIF's budget.
"The unfortunate reality of it all is that money will be very dried up," he said.
He said NIF is formulating plans that are "for the long haul, for the business solvency, and for also the direction we are steering in for the future".
Davis said NIF had looked into the JobKeeper scheme announced by the government this week, but it was decided that the scheme was not the right course of action for the organisation right now.
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"We'll reassess when the time is right," he said.
"At this current time, Northern NSW Football have extended every hand of help. And it's in our best interest, as a football community, to take that help and assistance and allow our staff to be guided by our governing body."
News of the redundancies come at a time when the sport's governing body extended the temporary suspension on all grassroots competitions and associated training until the end of May.
Football Federation Australia had originally advised suspending all soccer-related activities until April 14. But in light of further government restrictions and measures, it has extended that until at least May 31.
It was hoped that the impact was initially going to be minimal on NIF, with the Premier League and all community competitions not scheduled to kick off until May 2.
Davis said that while the FFA announcement was unfortunate, the safety of the football community was paramount.
He said they have no indication of a start date yet but will be working closely with soccer's main governing bodies as to when they can get players back on the field. Until then they will be "making sure that we've got everything put in place now so that when the go button is hit, we're right to go."
"We fully acknowledge that we are going to be a big part of the community rebuild of all of our lives from the pandemic and what's transpired, which is something we've never seen before," he said.
He remains optimistic that soccer will commence this season but conceded to the possibility that for the first time in over 100 years, there might not be any soccer played in the region, at least this winter.
