MINNEAPOLIS — The NFL is falling behind in its court fight with the players over the future of the $9 billion business.

The federal judge who lifted the NFL lockout two days ago dealt another blow to the league late Wednesday, denying its request to put her ruling on hold pending appeals and guaranteeing more limbo for the 32 teams, thousands of players and millions of fans.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson wrote that the NFL “has not met its burden for a stay pending appeal, expedited or otherwise.” She dismissed the NFL’s argument that she didn’t have jurisdiction and that it is facing irreparable harm because of her decision to end the 45-day lockout.

“In short, the world of ‘chaos’ the NFL claims it has been thrust into — essentially the ‘free-market’ system this nation otherwise willfully operates under — is not compelled by this court’s order,” Nelson wrote.

The judge acknowledged that her decision will be appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis and the NFL has promised that step.

The ruling means the league has no rules in place, shelved since the collective bargaining agreement ended on March 11 and the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987 was imposed shortly afterward. But Nelson said that needn’t be the case.

“The league may choose to act in accordance with its expressed belief that the players remain a union and that they have reached a state of impasse, or the League may choose to chart a different course, implementing a version of the 2010 player system, or something different altogether,” she wrote. “Like any defendant in any lawsuit, defendants themselves must make a decision about how to proceed and accept the consequences of their decision.”

Whether that includes free agency or other rules drawn up even as the draft gets under way Thursday was anyone’s guess. There was no immediate word from the league after Nelson’s decision.

The NFL had argued that Nelson had no jurisdiction and that she shouldn’t make a decision while a complaint of bad-faith negotiation against the players was still pending with the National Labor Relations Board. The league also argued that it shouldn’t be subject to some of the antitrust claims leveled by the players with the collective bargaining deal barely expired.

The judge shot all of those down.

The league’s plea to Nelson for the stay was also based on a purported fear that an immediate lifting of the lockout would result in a free agency free-for-all that could create a mess that would be difficult to undo should a new collective bargaining agreement lead to different rules.