Fox Sports' waning appetite for the round-ball code is clear - it tried to wriggle out of a $5 million annual increase in its contract with FFA as part of the A-League's expansion, and is considering selling off two of the five weekly games to a free-to-air partner. Loading The FFA Cup, a sentimental favourite on the football calendar, is wrapped up in the current $346 million arrangement with FFA, which does not expire until 2023. Organisers at FFA and Fox production staff are continuing to press ahead with normal planning ahead of next month's opening fixtures in the round of 32. But after recent redundancies - in which some of football's strongest in-house advocates were shown the door - there are growing fears the cup could be next to go. Fox would need FFA's permission to on-sell the rights to the knockout tournament.

Along with the Seven and Ten networks, it is believed SBS has been involved in preliminary talks over the A-League's free-to-air rights and may yet emerge as the cup's saviour. Loading Asked on Monday about the FFA Cup's future on the pay-TV provider, Fox Sports head of television Steve Crawley said he was "unaware of any discussions" around the tournament. FFA chief executive David Gallop said: "We continue to work with Fox to create value and next season with the return of the Western Sydney Wanderers to a world-class stadium and the introduction of Western United we expect improvements to our A-League ratings. "The FFA Cup is unique in Australian sport. It unites the entire football community from the grassroots to the Hyundai A-League and Fox’s coverage has always been an important way of showing the local stories and the special moments of the cup."

Fox's financial woes have led to the departures of key personnel in the past month including well-known rugby commentator Sean Maloney, long-serving executive producer of rugby Simon Gee, veteran director Matthew Heaton and football department executive producer Murray Shaw. Geoff Bullock, another high-ranking football producer, resigned prior to the cuts. Fox Sports' rugby department did not respond to requests for comment. RA chief Raelene Castle said she believed Fox Sports saw the value in the 15-man game. "We’re at that stage where we can’t talk about any detail because of commercial in confidence but certainly we’ve had some very positive conversations with Fox to date," Castle said. "All I'd say is that from our initial conversations with Fox is that they recognise the value of rugby to them, both at a domestic level but certainly at an international level.

"They recognise that what we have in our competitions are the best players in the world playing in Super Rugby, if not at least 50 per cent of them. That gives content that is the best rugby content in the world. So we’re confident that we’ll have some really positive conversations." While there is no suggestion the NRC will not go ahead this year or next, the funding re-jig between RA and Fox Sports adds further fuel to speculation the competition will be dumped in the next broadcast deal, which starts in 2021. Castle was equivocal when quizzed about the competition's future. "We have a conversation with our broadcasters about all of the opportunities that we have to promote rugby," Castle said. "For us it’s a balancing act of how do we best use all of those properties we’ve got to get the best outcomes for fans, making sure there’s always access to content as well as having the best commercial returns.