On Thursday last week Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) released a statement saying that the performance of its national team players, who represent the Australian national team the ‘Socceroos’, would not suffer as a result of an ongoing pay dispute with Football Federation Australia (FFA). The statement was released following widespread media reports that the PFA had launched legal action against the FFA, accusing them of not having handed over match payments and commercial bonuses owed to the national team players.

The Guardian reported that the a PFA spokesman had confirmed to the newspaper that the PFA had ‘filed a formal grievance claim with the federation’s independent disputes arbitrator, but declined to specify exactly how much money it was over’. Local media reported that the sum in dispute was AUD $100,000 (€69,000). The newspaper continued that it could ‘confirm that a grievance had been filed in accordance with the Socceroos Collective Bargaining Agreement 2011-2015 (CBA) against Football Federation Australia in relation to Socceroos agreed payments’, according to its source. The paper reported the spokesman as saying that the matter would be determined by an independent arbitrator and that the players had also decided to have their Socceroos’ commercial contracts independently audited. Under the players’ CBA, due to expire on 30 June 2015, ‘agreed payments’ include match payments, daily allowances, prize money, bonuses, commercial payments and superannuation.

In response to these media reports, the FFA accused the PFA of being ‘unnecessarily disruptive’. The FFA released a statement on its website quoting its CEO David Gallop as saying that the ‘PFA’s decision to make public statements about a confidential and independent dispute resolution process days before a FIFA World Cup qualifier is inappropriate and unnecessarily disruptive’. The statement continued that the matters in question related back to 2010 and were first raised in August last year and therefore not material to the current qualification campaign.

The PFA in response to the FFA’s statement said that its Chief Executive Adam Vivian had met on Thursday with the Socceroos Committee, which is comprised of players in the national team, in which ‘the players instructed the PFA to categorically reject any suggestion that the their focus for the upcoming qualifier would waiver due to the media speculation’. The PFA’s statement continued that the matter had ‘never detracted from their performances’ and that their ‘commitment to the National Team is not in doubt’. However, the statement concluded that the players ‘reiterated their full support of the PFA in this matter’.

The Socceroos play Kyrgyzstan tomorrow in the first of their 2018 World Cup qualifiers.