Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) have today finalised a National Teams Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that ensures remuneration, high-performance standards, and gender equality will be maintained for the Socceroos and Westfield Matildas during a period of global uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revised CBA, which will continue to carry through to the completion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ to be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2023, ensures that Australia will continue to be a global leader in advancing gender equity and pay parity in football by maintaining the principle of sharing revenues generated by Australia’s National Football Teams equally between the Socceroos and Westfield Matildas.
Working collaboratively and with the future of Australia’s elite and iconic national teams at the heart of the negotiation process, FFA and PFA have agreed to adjust various mechanisms within the CBA to respond to the economic impacts presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Particularly, the adjustments to the CBA account for the significantly disrupted international calendars both teams have experienced in 2020, which has reduced the opportunity for Australia’s National Football Teams to generate revenue in both FY20 and FY21. FFA, PFA and the national team players, will continue to work together to develop and implement a plan to recover from the impacts of COVID-19.
FFA Chief Executive Officer, James Johnson:
“This agreement ensures that the Socceroos and Westfield Matildas will continue to receive an equal share of the revenues generated by our National Teams, yet also serves to support the financial health of the game more broadly.”
“The agreement guarantees that contracted Westfield Matildas will continue to receive a monthly wage, something we view as critical to supporting our elite female players in line with our ‘player-first’ values.”
“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.”
“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.”
PFA Co-Chief Executive, Kathryn Gill:
“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.”
“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™.”
