Hefty pay cuts on cards

A-LEAGUE players have been asked to take a pay cut of around 80 per cent to complete this season, as the brutal financial realities created by the coronavirus pandemic take hold.

Sparking anger among the A-League players, the controversial proposal threatens to stymie efforts to establish a timetable to resume playing and complete the suspended season by the end of August.

Under a financial model put forward by Football Federation Australia, the governing body intends to keep almost all of the near $12 million FFA received from Fox Sports three weeks ago as the quarterly payment on its broadcast deal.

Normally each of the 11 clubs would receive around $800,000 every quarter from FFA, but the clubs have been told they will get a combined figure of less than $2 million if the offer on the table is ratified.

With little more than a week until players’ contracts expire at the end of May, at which point several become free agents or switch clubs, there is mounting pressure to complete a deal before then and put in place contract extensions to cover the rest of the season. Under the proposed share out, FFA will keep $5.7 million from the Fox Sports money, plus a further $2 million for national team funding. Another $2 million will be kept to pay for the socalled hub, the centralised venue where all players will stay and play the games required to complete the season. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are all under consideration to host the hub.

That leaves less than $2 million for player payments, compared with the $8.8 million normally distributed to the clubs each quarter.

Compounding the uncertainty, there is no pay deal in place for next season, amid huge uncertainty over the Fox Sports deal which runs for another three seasons.

Jon Didulica, CEO of the players’ association, said: “This has been an incredibly challenging period for individual players and their absolute focus now is on returning to team training at the earliest possible opportunity.

“The PFA’s focus is on ensuring that the training and playing environment for their return is as safe as possible, given the prospect of increased exposure to contracting COVID-19 and the potential long-term health impact on athletes who contract it.”

FFA has been approached for comment.