PFA slams new A-League rules

Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) chief executive Brendan Schwab said new rules for the current season preventing players from appealing match review panel decisions denied them natural justice.

The issue has come to a head after two players - Perth Glory striker Michael Baird and Central Coast Mariners midfielder Patricio Perez - were banned for two games for alleged weekend diving offences.

Under new Football Federation Australia (FFA) regulations, they have no right of appeal.

Schwab said PFA supported the crackdown on diving, but not the denial of an opportunity for the players to plead their cases.

"We think that's a fundamental denial of natural justice, we think that FFA does not lawfully have the power to do it. If the rules were challenged in court the challenge would succeed," Schwab said on Tuesday.

"We fail to understand why FFA has taken the position it has taken, given all we're asking for is a hearing."

Schwab said PFA had strongly argued against the new disciplinary rules when they were introduced ahead of the season, but made no headway with FFA.

But he predicted that if the ruling body did not buckle during the season, it would face a losing court battle come finals time.

"If FFA doesn't change it, then there's a real risk that come a vital point in time, for example a grand final appearance, then that's when the system will be challenged," he said.

"And I believe the system will not survive that legal challenge."

Under the new system, once the match review panel has made a decision, a player can not challenge a guilty finding, or a resultant mandatory suspension.

But they can challenge any sanction imposed above the mandatory penalty for an offence.

Melbourne Heart captain Simon Colosimo - the sitting PFA President - said even though Perth's penalty goal, scored as a result of the incident involving Baird, cost Heart victory on Sunday, he agreed Baird should have the right to plead his case.

"I was heated, I was angry, all of that, but I still believe that as players and as people, everyone out there forgets that we are people, we deserve the right to have a fair hearing," Colosimo said.