Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) have today come to terms on a revised Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for Socceroos and Matildas players.
Remuneration, high-performance standards, and gender equality will be maintained for the national teams – despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
FFA said that the CBA makes sure that Australia will continue to be a global leader for advancing gender equity and pay parity in football.
The National Teams Collective Bargaining Agreement extends until the end of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
FFA and PFA have agreed to make adjustments to the CBA to deal with the economic impacts that the pandemic has caused. Due to the pandemic there has been less opportunities for the national teams to generate revenue.
Contracted Matildas players will continue to be paid a monthly wage. FFA views this as critical to continuing to support elite female players.
FFA CEO James Johnson said that the agreement ensures that equal shares of revenues generated by the national teams will be given to the Socceroos and Matildas.
“We have worked collaboratively and with strong principles with the PFA and the national team players to carefully consider the challenges we are confronting and developing a future proof agreement which takes into account the environmental challenges that we are confronting globally at present,” he said in a statement.
“With this CBA now finalised, we look forward to working with the players and PFA to develop plans to recover from the pandemic. The strong schedules of activities both teams are set to experience in 2021 and beyond will assist in the regeneration of long-term national team revenues, which will not only benefit our elite players but many other areas of the sport.”
FFA, PFA and the national team players will work together to develop a plan to bounce back from the impacts of the pandemic.
“Preserving a world-leading CBA during a challenging period for the industry was of critical importance to the players as we seek to work in partnership with FFA to rebuild the sport in the wake of COVID-19,” PFA Co-Chief Executive Officer, Kathryn Gill said about the agreement.
“The National Team CBA model was designed with the flexibility to allow individual entitlements to be redirected, meaning we could find a solution that dignifies the Matildas as professional footballers and ensures an equal distribution of revenues to the players, whilst maintaining the high-performance environment.
“Importantly, this outcome can help our sport build the foundations for a once in a generation opportunity; hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™.”
