Institute boss Sean Connor said news of his side's relegation was the low-point of his football career
Institute say the delay in a verdict to their appeal against their Irish Premiership relegation is "exacerbating the injustice of the original NIFL decision".
The club submitted their appeal to the Irish FA on 26 June.
This followed the final standings being decided by a mathematical formula.
"The uncertain nature of the eventual outcome has impeded our ability to confirm any individual player contracts," said the club on Tuesday.
"The club understands and sympathises with players' desires to secure contracts for the coming season.
"Whilst we have already lost a couple of them to other Premiership clubs, the majority have been loyal enough to await the outcome of the appeal panel's decision before deciding on their immediate future and we are grateful to those players."
Institute have not wavered in their insistence that they were dealt an injustice by their relegation - even though they were bottom in the table with seven rounds of fixtures remaining when the halt was eventually called.
"The decision to apply the automatic relegation principle to our club when we still had seven games to play, five of which were at home, was a contradiction of at least two of the three key principles identified by the Premiership Clubs, and adopted by the NIFL, as the foundation on which any 'end of season' solution should be based.
"Those principles were; the health and wellbeing of supporters, players, match officials and club staff, the financial viability of all clubs, and an adherence to the concept of sporting integrity.
"At the time of the leagues curtailment, it was still statistically possible for Institute to finish with more points than the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, or 11th-placed clubs, because with seven games still remaining [six of those against bottom six clubs and five of those at home] there were 21 points still available.
"It is unfortunate, that at a time when the wider community were so united in their attempt to support each other during the Covid crisis, our 'football family' did not appear to have a similar focus."
The Institute statement concluded by saying that such decisions "could have such a detrimental and disproportionate impact on the future viability of smaller clubs in particular, and on the hopes and aspirations of the young players and communities in which they are rooted".
