A-League: Clubs start contract talks with players despite lack of a collective bargaining agreement
A-League clubs are negotiating contracts directly with players and are confident a CBA won’t be needed for the competition to proceed.
Football
Don't miss out on the headlines from Football. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A-League clubs have started contract negotiations with their own players in their belief a Collective Bargaining Agreement does not need to be in place for the 2020-21 season to proceed.
And while Professional Footballers Australia officials are pleased clubs have started pay talks with players, they are continuing to push for a CBA.
Perth Glory CEO Tony Pignata, whose club has been threatened with legal action by the PFA by standing down players, was confident a CBA would not be required.
“It’ll be a standard contract FFA (Football Federation Australia) will give us but every club is negotiating with their players now,” Pignata told the News Corp Australia.
“Nothing’s going to change in terms of standards, but it’s basically that now we do our own agreements.”
Pignata said contract talks were being based on a reduced salary cap of $2.1 million.
“We are renegotiating everyone’s contract at the moment,” he said.
“The cap’s come down, the TV broadcast money’s come down and players understand this.
“We need to work out new figures from a 10-month period from September to June 30 next year.”
PFA co-chief executive Beau Busch was glad the Glory were willing to negotiate with their players to find a resolution. but that further action was needed.
“The next step is for (Glory owner) Tony (Sage) to remove the stand downs,” Busch said.
“Across the league other clubs are doing their best to work with their players whilst we continue to seek a collective bargaining agreement.
“We need to work together to get football back on its feet, and frankly, this is unhelpful.”
Pignata said the Glory would work towards removing the stand downs “as quickly as possible”
It comes as Melbourne City have regained the services of defender Nathaniel Atkinson for the 2020-21 A-League season but have lost midfielder Josh Brillante.
Atkinson was set to join the Glory, along with Melbourne Victory star Andrew Nabbout, with their move west having been announced earlier this month.
But the pair’s move to the Glory has been terminated by mutual consent due to COVID-19 enforced border restrictions.
https://twitter.com/MelbourneCity/status/1308630025843798016
While the Victory are yet an announce the return of Nabbout, City have welcomed back 21-year-old Atkinson, who played in the club’s 1-0 grand final loss to Sydney FC last month.
City have also retained experienced midfielders Florin Berenguer and Rostyn Griffiths, but their engine room will be without Brillante.
The 27-year-old former Sydney FC start has left City after just one season, and is set to link with former Glory coach Tony Popovic at Greek second division outfit Xanthi FC.
It will be a return to Europe for Brillante, who had stints with Italian clubs Fiorentina, Empoli and Como from 2014 to 2016.
Meanwhile, the Glory – who have stood down their entire squad in the absence of an A-League collective bargaining agreement – have also lost defender Tomislav Mrcela, who has returned to Croatia for family reasons.
Originally published as A-League: Clubs start contract talks with players despite lack of a collective bargaining agreement