Football Federation Australia has fired back at claims the governing body is responsible for ensuring injured Socceroo star Jason Culina was insured by his A-League club.
The Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) on Thursday served the FFA with legal papers on behalf of Culina – reportedly suing them for $1.7 million – after it was revealed that the midfielder had not been insured since his return to the the A-League in 2009 with Gold Coast.
The PFA claims in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement, the FFA has to ensure that insurance is in place to cover wages for at least two years in the event a player is injured.
The FFA hands this responsibility to the clubs in their licence agreements, but the players’ union is arguing the FFA still has the responsibility to make sure the premiums are paid by the club.
“The PFA is trying to make out that this situation involving Jason Culina can be boiled down to a dispute between FFA and Jason over insurance,” said FFA Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Kyle Patterson.
“This assertion is a red herring, a quite mischievous distraction from what’s happening. You have to question the PFA’s motives in running this line through the media.
“Our advice is that the Newcastle Jets have been meeting their obligations under Jason’s contract, as they should.
“We also understand that Jason is working hard on his rehabilitation in order to get back into action.”
And while the FFA would not discuss Culina’s case specifically they made a point of clarifying the terms regarding insurance for marquee players in the A-League.
“Any club that decides to contract a marquee player does so knowing they are responsible for all costs, including insurance, and any liabilities arising from that engagement,” the FFA said in a statement.
“The cost of marquee players, as with the benefits, rest with the individual club, not the FFA or the A-League or other clubs.”
Culina suffered a serious knee injury representing the Socceroos in January, while he was contracted to Gold Coast.
After surgery, he signed a three-year $2.65 million deal with Newcastle but was ruled out indefinitely before even playing a game for his new club after suffering an injury in the pre-season.
Just four days out from the start of the A-League season in October, the Jets announced they had sacked his coach and father Branko Culina and would seek to have Jason’s multi-million dollar contract “set aside” amid fears he would never play again.
j binnie
Guest
Philip here are some of the contradictions emanating from various reports.I personally am party to none of these so cannot speak for the authenticity of what we are being asked to read. (1) The PFA claims the FFA is in contradiction of a CBA that is in place. (2) The CBA in the public domain appears to have been put in place for Socceroos taking part in the World Cup 2006-2010 (3) Jason appears to have been injured in an Asian Cup competition AFTER the WC was over. (4) Jason appears to have undergone surgery after this injury was sustained (5) Jason appears to have been hurt at a training session with GCU, post surgery, so one must assume he was passed fit to train. (6) Jason appears to have entered into an agreement with Newcastle AFTER this training injury. (7) It appears the FFA made it a mandatory part of being granted a licence that the club insures it's players. (8) It now appears this does not apply to marquee players who are paid and treated outside the club's salary cap. (9) Jason was a GCU marquee player. (10) To the best of my knowledge Jason has not played or trained with Newcastle the injury being worse than first diagnosed. Now Philip, try and make sense out of all these reports and if you have success PLEASE LET US ALL KNOW. Best of luck jb
Philip
Guest
Surely it's up to the club involved to pay and insure all it's employees whether you are the marquee player, the office clerk or the boot studder. The FFA can't be responsible for failure of the clubs to act as they should although the FFA should be a able to sanction clubs that fail to comply with the conditions of their licences.
j binnie
Guest
"Oh what a tangled web we weave". What is going on here?????. It's time someone began to examine the reports that are emanating from various sources in this sorry tale of administrative mayhem so that some common thread of credibility begins to emerge from the claims and counter claims of the 5 parties involved. The fans,as usual ,are being led along a trail that just cannot be followed, for, every "statement" made by some representative of those 5 parties appears to have another twist in it's tail.Strangely, GCU appear to have gone very quiet on the matter.Has Miron been struck dumb by the affair?. Humour aside, this case is presenting football administration in a "not-so-clever " light,reminiscent of the "goings -on" in the NSL in it's darkest hours of existence.Time to act Mr Lowy, this sort of publicity we can well do without at this time when "progress" has been so good this season. jb
j binnie
Guest
Ian - Who pays Ian, who?????? You tried to help me understand this case before and gave me a website that I looked at and then replied to you with some obvious restrictions written on "front "of that agreement (it appeared to have been drawn up to protect players during the WC campaign 2006-2010". You have not replied to my reply,so,what do you think about the "agreement's" validity over Jason's injury which occurred later than the 2010 "cut off" point and was not in a World Cup tournament?????.Interested in knowing your thoughts. jb
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Its actually doubly dangerous, as the worst case scenario isnt FFA having to pay Culina his money - its Newcastle's owner getting upset at being told he has to, and him handing the club back to the FFA. Pay the man.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
The FFA are on dangerous ground here...