Industrial clash looms as unhappy A-League players say they want APL board sacked

1 week ago 6

A-League players have not ruled out strike action if their upcoming industrial negotiations with the Australian Professional Leagues are unproductive after delivering a searing assessment of their lack of faith in the competition’s administrative body.

According to a survey conducted by Professional Footballers Australia for their annual report, to be released on Thursday, 78 per cent of players in the A-League Men are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the performance of the APL, while 60 per cent would like to see the APL board sacked and replaced with an AFL-style independent commission.

A demand for an independent commission will be formally tabled by the PFA when negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement begin later this month – but the players’ union is on a collision course with the Stephen Conroy-led APL, which announced earlier this year a “hard” salary cap of $3 million that will force clubs to significantly cut player wages.

The PFA immediately voiced its opposition to such a change, and chief executive Beau Busch reiterated that it was a red line they would not cross under any circumstances. Players see this moment as a “generational opportunity” to spark much-needed change in the game, and will make whatever sacrifices are necessary to ensure that “significant industry reform” occurs, Busch said.

“The players absolutely believe in the potential of this sport,” Busch said, flagging that the PFA would launch its own vision for the A-League, backed by 18 months of research, by the end of January.

“And if you believe in something, you need to be willing to risk, and you need to be willing to do whatever it takes, to bring that to life.”

Though the financially stricken A-League has had recent success in pivoting to youth development and leveraging the global transfer market, the PFA is concerned that it has over-corrected at the expense of the overall quality of the competition, eroding fan interest and ultimately jeopardising the very transfer revenues it is now trying to chase.

Busch said players were alarmed by plunging attendance and engagement trends, with the A-League having lost the strong public profile it had when it was broadcast by Fox Sports. Crowds have fallen again this season despite “front-loading” of the competition with derbies, while research presented by the PFA predicts the A-League will slip from one of Australia’s top-five most passionately followed competitions to 12th if these matters are not quickly addressed.

Andrew Redmayne, the Socceroos’ hero in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, now plays for the Central Coast Mariners and is a member of the PFA executive.

Professional Footballers Australia chief executive Beau Busch.

In a video call with journalists on Wednesday, he spoke of the sense of “distaste” between the playing cohort and the APL, and his bewilderment that the A-League’s website has been down for most of this week, without explanation, which summed up his concerns about the lack of promotion and visibility of the domestic league.

Redmayne said passionate football fans were “fed up” and abandoning the league, while even his neighbours and friends had no idea when it was on.

“I think it’s pretty common – I mean, you talk to anyone in Australia,” he said.

“I was with James Tedesco the other day, and he said, ‘So how long you got off?’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, we just played round one.’ People just don’t know.”

The PFA’s report is highly critical of the lack of public leadership within the game amid recent failures, including the “hibernation” of Melbourne-based Western United, which left dozens of players stranded, and of the tenor of relations with the APL, which it says had displayed a broader pattern of unilateral decision-making and a general lack of transparency.

“Right now, if we were to Google the constitution of the English Premier League or any other major league around the world, we’d be able to find that. But that’s not the case in relation to our professional game here,” Busch said.

Instead of meeting with the players, Football Australia and clubs as part of a committee to discuss league regulations, which has not convened in more than a year, the PFA said players were blindsided in April by the APL’s strict new salary cap measures, which chairman Conroy said were needed to address league-wide financial stress.

Players believe the reduced cap will harm clubs’ ability to compete in Asia and access rising prizemoney, undercutting one of the few growing revenue streams the game still has. The report also warns that increased reliance on player sales rather than fan-based revenue, such as broadcast rights, merchandising and ticketing – a sector the report alleges the APL has “almost given up” on – is a risk due to the volatility of the transfer market and unpredictable nature of player development.

The APL was contacted for comment.