Australian soccer players wanting to play in July`s Oceania Nations Cup have been told that they will have to play for free, with overseas based players having to pay their own air fares home, Australian newspapers have reported on Sunday. Soccer Australia (SA) have reportedly asked the Professional Footballers Association to accept at deal in which players are paid based on performance from tournament prize money, receiving no match fee or daily allowance as they did in previous Nations Cups.

SA also said that overseas based players wanting to play in the competition will have to pay their own way to Australia and subsequent flights to Auckland where the tournament kicks off on July 5th.
"It`s not that I`m not prepared to pay for their air fares, it`s that we can`t afford it," Acting SA chief executive Greg Bates was quoted in the Sun-Herald as saying.
"We can either cancel the tournament or use locally based players."
The competition leads to qualification for the 2003 Confederations Cup, the tournament in which Australia made headlines last year by beating France and Brazil. Bureau Report