Culina is said to have filed the claim against the FFA on Thursday after discovering he had never been insured to play in the A-League.

It's understood the claim is for $1.7million plus associated legal costs.

"FFA can confirm that a grievance notice has been lodged, but we will not make any public comment on the merits of the claim," an FFA spokesman told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"We would encourage all parties in this matter to respect the player's privacy and wait for due process to occur."

According to the league's collective bargaining agreement, the FFA is supposed to ensure that insurance is in place to cover wages for at least two years, in the case that a player is injured.

While the FFA have passed this duty on to the clubs in their licence agreements, the players' union will argue that it is their responsibility to ensure the clubs go through with it.

It's understood Gold Coast United failed to insure Culina when he was signed as their marquee player back in 2009.

He picked up an injury at the Asian Cup in January this year and as GCU allegedly had no insurance, they continued to pay his wages until he was released to sign for Newcastle Jets in a reported $850,000 a year, three year deal.

However Culina never played for the Jets and Newcastle caused uproar at the start of the season when they tried to have his contract set aside after it was revealed he would be out injured for the enitre season at least.