The Saturday Age alleged the Sky Blues had made more than $100,000 worth of salary cap breaches during the season due to Additional Services Agreements with players from third parties.

The article said the A-League's operations senior manager Matt Phelan alerted the game's governing body of the potential issue, however it is alleged he was told by FFA chief executive Ben Buckley to take a different approach to ensure Sydney FC had no case to answer.

Former A-League chief Archie Fraser, who left the post in April 2010 to join North Queensland Fury, added in the article he had always felt there was an inadequate level of salary cap administration.

But in a statement released on Saturday afternoon, Buckley hit back at the allegations claiming they were not true.

“There is no substance to the claims made in today’s press,” Buckley said.

“I emphatically reject the suggestion that FFA is not serious about policing the salary cap. It’s nothing more than baseless innuendo peddled by a disgruntled former employee.

“FFA assures Hyundai A-League fans, players and clubs that it operates a robust Salary Cap system with a comprehensive reporting, monitoring and audit process across the competition."

The article also alleged there had been two other salary cap breaches in the past which had been handled in an inconsistent manner but Buckley also rejected claims.

“We have taken a hard line on breaches in the past and will do so again as required," Buckley said.

"The salary cap is a fundamental pillar of the competition and I take any claims of salary cap violations very seriously, but in this instance there is no substance and we stand by the compliance audit that was conducted at the end of the 2009/10 season.”

The FFA statement also outlined the body's salary cap administration process, as follows;

  • A Player Payment Reporting Register compiled by clubs and reviewed on set dates by FFA
  • Clubs submit the Register to FFA at the end of each transfer window, end of contract year and whenever a new player is added to roster in between
  • FFA conducts a full compliance audit on Player Payments, including ASAs, annually at the conclusion of the contract period (March 31)
  • As part of the compliance for all 3rd party agreements outside Salary Cap (ASAs) the Club and Player must sign a statutory declaration and the 3rd party must sign an acknowledgement letter declaring that the player/s have completed the work
  • FFA access to club financial records, documents and other papers FFA thinks may be relevant to any inquires
  • Random audits by FFA