After criticising Football Federation Australia (FFA) and players’ body Professional Footballers Association (PFA) for an ongoing players’ pay dispute, Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou has backtracked and put the PFA under the spotlight, after players boycotted commercial appearances ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh in Perth on Thursday.
Postecoglou initially stated that the pay dispute sage – regarding a new collective bargaining agreement – was a distraction for the national side, but later backed away from his comments.
“As a senior employee of Football Federation Australia I understand that my comments were inappropriate,” he said.
“I appreciate that I need to take sides on this issue. The commercial performance of the Socceroos brand directly affects the amount of investment in the match schedule, technical developments and sports science staff.
“In this case, the commercial boycotts imposed by Professional Footballers Australia will directly affect commercial partners and will inevitably hurt the Socceroos program.”
“I call on the PFA to undertake that no future Socceroo camp will be targeted in this way.”
The Socceroos’ next qualifier comes against Tajikistan in that country’s capital Dushanbe on September 8.