It has taken "seven months, 30 odd meetings and some ill-tempered and highly public arguments," but it "finally looks as though soccer bosses and the players union are inching towards a deal that would resolve the long-running pay and conditions row and head off any prospect of strike action ahead of the A-League kick-off next month," according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. FFA chiefs on Thursday were meeting with A-League club owners "to put to them a series of proposals hammered out between the union (the PFA) and the game's governing body in Sydney on Wednesday." It is understood that there has been "some movement on improved payments for the Australian women's soccer team, the Matildas, which has been the public focus of the dispute." The Matildas "had been paid a maximum" of A$21,000 ($15,007) a year per player under the old CBA. The FFA claims it had "offered a package which would have delivered top players some $40,000 a year but that the union had rejected it because their other demands for the Socceroos and the A-League players -- the other groups involved in the 'whole of game agreement' sought by both the union and the governing body -- were not met." It is believed that the demand for the salary cap to be frozen "will be subject to a slight thaw, with the current cap lifted from" A$2.55M ($1.82M) to A$2.6M ($1.86M) this year and a "small amount more the following season." Any big rise "will be tied to the new television deal the following year which, if it delivers as much as those involved in the negotiations hope, will bring a substantial lift in year three" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 9/17).
