Women's football is "embarking on a giant stride away from part-time payments to full-time professionals with talks for a first-ever collective bargaining agreement for the W-League set to be introduced next year," according to Dominic Bossi of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. On the eve of the new W-League season, Football Federation Australia and the players' union, Professional Footballers Australia, "confirmed discussions are taking place over establishing an agreement that will limit the number of players balancing full-time work commitments to play elite football." While the deal is "unlikely to be completed before the end of the upcoming season," a "top-down" approach to structuring unprecedented pay and working conditions will be introduced to encourage more females to pursue a career in football. PFA CEO John Didulica said, "The core objective is that we develop a professional career path for talented Australian footballers and I think beyond that the better the professional career path for female footballers the stronger it is in Australia." While the two parties are "making major movements" to professionalize women's football, the W-League is "still no closer to becoming a competitively balanced football competition." The new season "will not include two full rounds of football as the nine teams will play just 14 games over 16 weeks before finals instead of a home-and-away season of 16 games in the regular season" (SMH, 11/1).
