The row is similar to a dispute in the Australian Football League, when several years ago a sponsorship deal between brewer Toohey's and Melbourne and St Kilda was at odds with the competition's main brewery backer Carlton and United Breweries.
The Wolves have already sought legal opinion and are expecting a response justifying their new arrangement with WIN Television, an affiliate of the Nine network.
WIN clinched a deal with the club (of which it is a minor shareholder) to become naming-rights sponsor late last week.
Seven, which is now committed to increase its coverage of the soccer, having lost the rights to the AFL, took a dim view of the deal, especially as it had made the Wolves-Marconi game on Friday night its opening-round match on its pay television station C7 and featured a delayed late-night telecast on free-to-air.
Stefan Kamasz, the NSL's general manager, said last night he hoped a compromise could be found.
He said Soccer Australia could order Wollongong to remove the sponsor's name from shirts to safeguard the interests of Seven, which is a protected sponsor of the code.
"When we enter into a sponsorship, we realise that there may be some existing arrangements, and we allow that to run its course. Wollongong had the WIN name on their shorts, but in our view this is a new deal," Kamasz said.
"We need to be protective of the arrangement. Clubs need to understand that if Seven is putting millions of dollars each year into the game, then clubs can't go off and sign up (any) sponsors."
