'It's an affordability issue, it's dollars and cents pure and simple'
Improving pay and conditions for Australia's disgruntled women's team would require the country's top male players to give up a portion of their incomes, the country's FA boss David Gallop said on Monday.
Football Federation Australia and the player's union have been locked in a protracted dispute over the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement covering the national men's and women's teams, and the top men in Australia's domestic A-League.
Relations reached a new low earlier this month, when the women's team boycotted a lucrative two-match tour of the United States to play the World Cup champions.
The relatively humble salaries earned by Australia's top women has been a hot-button issue in the country since the Matildas made the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and many pundits are sympathetic to their demands for a better deal.
But as talks with the union resumed in Sydney on Monday, FFA chief executive Gallop said there would be no extra money put on the table.
"If (the union) wish to move some money from the male professional players pot to the Matildas then we're certainly open to that," Gallop told reporters in Sydney.
"What we're not open to is additional money because the game simply doesn't have it.
"It's an affordability issue, it's dollars and cents pure and simple.
"We want the Matildas to earn more money but that can only happen with the players' association looking at the division across all three of the buckets."
The FFA's hopes of striking a new CBA encompassing both national teams and the A-League players has backfired, with all three groups up in arms over the proposals offered.
The men's team boycotted sponsorship events in Perth last month ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh, while A-League players have not ruled out boycotting matches if the dispute drags on to the start of the season next month.
