Arnold blasted FFA for unsettling his team before their match against Melbourne Victory after the footballaustralia.com.au website broke the story about English Championship club Hull City offering a trial to Ryan.

But FFA’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Kyle Patterson, said the suggestion that the story was leaked by head office was just “plain wrong" and it was simply  a case of good journalism.

“The fact of the matter is that overseas clubs do not write to FFA asking about trials for Hyundai A-League players,” Patterson told the website.

“They write directly to the A-League clubs. How and when that news becomes public is a matter for the clubs and agents involved.”

Patterson said FFA operations staff didn’t and wouldn’t know about the trial.

“In any case, it’s offensive to suggest that A-League operations staff would share confidential club information,” he said.

“The website employs independent journalists in conjunction with our digital partner Optus. They don’t work in the FFA offices.

“Their job is to publish compelling news and features on Australian football. The website is not just a corporate noticeboard.

“Our aim is to make it the number one football portal in Australia and breaking the Mat Ryan story shows how serious we are about that.

“In October FFA appointed Mike Cockerill to the position of associate editor of the website. Mike is one of the top football journalists in Australia after a 28-year career with the Sydney Morning Herald.

“One of the principal reasons for this appointment was to make the content of the website more compelling; that includes breaking news. We are confident we're on the right path in this regard."

Patterson pointed to similar sports media advances in the USA and said the AFL was heading in the same direction, employing more than 100 writers and producers in their digital network.

He added: “This is part of the convergence of media channels that’s gaining pace around the world.”