Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) today marked International Women’s Day by restating its commitment to gender equity and the advancement of women’s football.
Coinciding with an extremely important year for the women’s game in Australia, with the Matildas set to compete in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and negotiations ongoing on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), PFA Executive Kathryn Gill said the players had played an enormous role in the growth of Australian Football.
“The commitment and passion the players have for representing their country can’t be overstated,” said Gill. “Playing for the Matildas places enormous professional and personal demands on the players, who are often forced to make significant financial sacrifices to represent their country.
“To ensure our international competitiveness and to further grow the attractiveness of the game to Australia’s women, it is essential that we establish a genuine career path for players in terms of remuneration, opportunity, player education and development.”
The current CBA, which expires after the Women’s World Cup, provides semi-professional benefits for the players, including:
– a contract period of six months on a retainer of $10,500;
– access to a ‘top up pool’ pool of $36,500 in the six month period, to be discretionarily disbursed by Football Federation Australia between the players;
– uncontracted players receiving $150 per day in assembly; and
– match payments of $500 (slightly more per match if the team progresses past the group stages of World Cup).
PFA Chief Executive Adam Vivian acknowledged that the current CBA had made significant progress, but that further work needed to be done to further the interests of the PFA’s female members.
“Football is a sport that prides itself on universal values and these must extend to women. The players are clearly entitled to the same working conditions and environment as their male counterparts,” said Vivian.
“The goal of the PFA is to establish full-time professionalism for Australia’s elite female players and the next CBA represents an ideal opportunity to work towards this aim.
“The current CBA reflects the fact that the players are semi-professional, in the sense of the number of hours they spend together in camp; however it does not yet reflect the reality that a player must make a full-time commitment to her profession in order to arrive at camp ready to perform in world class competition.
“In the current semi-professional work environment, the PFA actively helps players in preparing for a career outside of football, with the vast majority of the Matildas squad having accessed the PFA Education Fund and all players having access to a Player Development Manager.
“Australian football has the opportunity to be a world leader in gender equity and the PFA and players are committed to ensuring this is the case.”
Image by Chad Gibson/Local FC. www.localfc.com.au.
For media enquiries contact PFA Media and Communications Manager Beau Busch on +61 (0) 432763485 or via beau@pfa.net.au.
