Andrew Redmayne, the Socceroos’ hero in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, now plays for the Central Coast Mariners and is a member of the PFA executive.
Professional Footballers Australia chief executive Beau Busch.Credit: Jason South
In a video call with journalists on Wednesday, he spoke of the sense of “distaste” between the playing cohort and the APL, and his bewilderment that the A-League’s website has been down for most of this week, without explanation, which summed up his concerns about the lack of promotion and visibility of the domestic league.
Redmayne said passionate football fans were “fed up” and abandoning the league, while even his neighbours and friends had no idea when it was on.
“I think it’s pretty common – I mean, you talk to anyone in Australia,” he said.
“I was with James Tedesco the other day, and he said, ‘So how long you got off?’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, we just played round one.’ People just don’t know.”
The PFA’s report is highly critical of the lack of public leadership within the game amid recent failures, including the “hibernation” of Melbourne-based Western United, which left dozens of players stranded, and of the tenor of relations with the APL, which it says had displayed a broader pattern of unilateral decision-making and a general lack of transparency.
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“Right now, if we were to Google the constitution of the English Premier League or any other major league around the world, we’d be able to find that. But that’s not the case in relation to our professional game here,” Busch said.
Instead of meeting with the players, Football Australia and clubs as part of a committee to discuss league regulations, which has not convened in more than a year, the PFA said players were blindsided in April by the APL’s strict new salary cap measures, which chairman Conroy said were needed to address league-wide financial stress.
Players believe the reduced cap will harm clubs’ ability to compete in Asia and access rising prizemoney, undercutting one of the few growing revenue streams the game still has. The report also warns that increased reliance on player sales rather than fan-based revenue, such as broadcast rights, merchandising and ticketing – a sector the report alleges the APL has “almost given up” on – is a risk due to the volatility of the transfer market and unpredictable nature of player development.
The APL was contacted for comment.
