Transfer fees for the A-League Men's top talents have exceeded the money brought in by the league's broadcast deal for the first time, according to soccer's players' union.
According to the union, A-League Men (ALM) clubs received at least $17.5 million in transfer fees in 2024.
Numbers provided by Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) indicated the paper value of the 22 outbound transfers that drew a fee added up to well over $20m when including add-ons and other clauses.
The PFA is adamant the transfer figure, cited by the A-Leagues' website as $20.6m, exceeded money brought in by the current broadcast deal with Network 10/Paramount Plus,
Those transfers were headlined by Adelaide pair Nestory Irankunda and Joe Gauci moving to Bayern Munich and Aston Villa respectively.
The growth in transfer incomings - which broke last season's record mark of $10 million, is a dramatic increase on previous seasons.
Prior to 2022-23, collective transfer receipts tended to average $2.5m per season.
It indicates the importance of transfers to clubs' bank balances - especially after the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) cut central distributions - and could well swing more clubs towards Central Coast and Adelaide's approaches of developing and selling young talent.
Elsewhere, the PFA's annual player survey, answered by 191 participants, showed half of ALM players were dissatisfied with how the APL had performed in its management of the competition, including 27 per cent who were "very dissatisfied".
Regarding developing a vision to improve the league, 46 per cent of players had "low trust" in the APL to deliver, while only 11 per cent had a "high" trust level in the managing body.
"Following a series of damaging missteps, that is hardly surprising," chief executive Beau Busch and former co-CEO Kate Gill said in a statement.
"Beyond that, the players are concerned that the management of the leagues has apparently become adrift of any discernible strategy, guiding principles, or effective accountability measures."
The A-Leagues insisted they had worked to stabilise the league.
"We note this survey was completed in May when there was a lot of uncertainty about the league," A-Leagues commissioner Nick Garcia said.
"We have worked through a lot of these challenges over the last year to stabilise the league and improve all revenue streams, and we continue to work with all stakeholders on our new league strategy to help us drive sustainable growth across the leagues.
“We take these points very seriously and the players’ priority focus areas are among the key points we are aiming to improve with the new league strategy."
There were also some concerns regarding player safety at club level.
Approximately 11 per cent of players felt their club environment was either physically or psychologically unsafe at some point in the 2023-24 season.
One in five said players at their club were unwilling to discuss issues with the coaching staff due to fear of retribution, while seven per cent reported instances of players being forced to train alone at their clubs.
The PFA said they had met with all clubs, who had accepted the findings.
