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ootball Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) have finalised a new National Teams Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), ensuring the continuation of equal pay.

The CBA plans to ensure remuneration, high-performance standards, and gender equality will be maintained for both the Socceroos and the Westfield Matildas through to the completion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.

To protect the equal pay model, the FFA said, in a statement, “FFA and PFA have agreed to adjust various mechanisms within the CBA to respond to the economic impacts presented by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

FFA CEO, James Johnson, said the new CBA will work to put the national teams in the best position to recover from COVID-19.

“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,” Johnson said.

“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,” he said.

PFA co-chief executive, Kathryn Gill, said: “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,” she said.

Despite the announcement of the National Team CBA, negotiations are still ongoing for a new CBA between the Association of Professional Football Clubs Australia (APFCA) and PFA, with A-League clubs hoping to secure a significantly reduced pay deal due to COVID-19.

The APFCA’s initial offer to the PFA was rejected on Tuesday, with the PFA saying the clubs’ proposal would allow them to “unilaterally impose salary reductions on players, with the players’ only recourse to reject such a reduction being to terminate their employment.

PFA co-chief executive, Beau Busch, said they organisation had put forth two alternative proposals after rejecting the initial offer.

“At a time when the preservation of the A-League has required unprecedented sacrifices on the part of the players, they have been forced to defend their most basic contractual rights,” Busch said.

“Our professional game finds itself at a critical juncture and our capacity to rebuild will largely be shaped by the quality of play on the pitch.

“Ensuring contract security and the attractiveness of the players’ work environment is critical; failing to do so will simply undermine any recovery efforts,” he said.

In a statement, the FFA, who is acting as a ‘regulator’ for the negotiations, said it may be forced to intervene if the two parties can’t reach an agreement, with some clubs reportedly moving to stand down their players if a deal can’t be reached.

“FFA are actively monitoring the negotiations between the APFCA and PFA and remains committed to supporting the parties in these negotiations,” FFA said in a statement.

“As FFA continues to monitor these negotiations, if the parties cannot reach agreement, FFA will enter the negotiations at the appropriate time,” FFA said.