Football Federation Australia (FFA) chief executive David Gallop has accused Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) of using the Matildas as a bargaining chip in its ongoing pay dispute that has forced the cancellation of their tour to the United States.

Gallop met PFA chief executive Adam Vivian on Thursday in an attempt to salvage the Matildas’ two-game tour of the US, however talks again broke down due to what Gallop described as “preposterous” demands in the new collective bargaining agreement.

“What happened today was quite extraordinary because, effectively, we’ve been told that unless we meet a wage claim for some $120 million – the bulk of which will go to male professional players in the next four-year period – then the Matildas would not be participating against the USA,” he said.

While the PFA has been stringent in its whole-of-game approach, Gallop said it was nonsense for the women’s tour against the world champions to become collateral damage in the stalled negotiations.

“We all celebrated their (World Cup) success in Canada,” he said. “This was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – 60,000 tickets had been sold. For them to get caught up in wage claims for our male professional players, to me, is bizarre.

“They should be on that plane tomorrow.”

The abandonment of the tour leaves the Matildas with just three games to prepare for the Olympic qualifiers in January.

“And that’s a mini-world cup in itself,” Matildas coach Alan Stajcic said.

“To lose two valuable games like that – I know there’s all the other issues around – but purely from a football sense, it’s a massive loss.”

Gallop also rejected the suggestion there was a freeze on the A-League salary cap of $2.55 million.

“There are new allowances that have been introduced into the system around long-serving players, around home-grown players and some provision for salary cap credits that will already see a $400,000 increase in payments next year,” he said.