A-League aspirants South Melbourne ‘refused to pay players wages owed after they left club’
Little more than a year after their A-League bid was rejected, South Melbourne FC are embroiled in a wages controversy that raises fresh questions over the professionalism of some clubs at NPL level.
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Update: Pressure is mounting for players and coaches below the A-League to have contract rights enforced within the game, after revelations about alleged non-payment of players at Victorian NPL side South Melbourne.
One of the three players who The Daily Telegraph revealed are seeking monies allegedly owed by SMFC described some clubs as being run “like the wild west” in terms of respecting contracts.
Australian players at levels below the A-League don’t have access to a statutory dispute resolution process, meaning their only option in pursuing wages is expensive court action.
In a bizarre loophole, foreign players – and coaches – can apply to FIFA to enforce payment of wages. Former SMFC coach Chris Taylor was able to claim some $80,000 he was owed by the club recently because he is English.
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The three ex-SMFC players are claiming almost $12,000 in wages, and one of them said it was a well-established issue.
“The big thing is, Victoria has a strong passion for football and a big history, with a lot of well-known clubs in the NPL,” he said.
“But the more these things happen, the more players will think twice about a particular move when it seems like the wild west.
“You see it across the league, clubs just stop paying players due to performance or whatever even though they have a professional contract.
“I know of a lot of players who would like the chance to step back from the A-League and reboot or get their fitness back after an injury in the NPL, but my advice increasingly is not to bother, especially when you might have to move family or whatever.”
The players association (PFA) has written to Football Federation Victoria asking for it to hear the players’ case via a tribunal, though most states do not have a binding system to hear players’ and clubs’ complaints.
Glenn Warry, CEO of Professional Coaches Australia, has held talks with Football Federation Australia and the state federations about having standardized coach contracts and recourse to a dispute procedure that was binding on all parties.
PCA advised Taylor and has cases pending against a number of other clubs, mostly in the NPL.
“If we’re going to have a national second division, clubs need to raise the standard of the way they do business,” Warry said.
“We’re trying to raise governance standards so that clubs operate in the real world. We are making some progress on a formalized procedure, but as things stand the only option a coach has who is owed money is to go to court or Fair Work Australia.”