SYDNEY FC coach Graham Arnold has slammed the FFA for repeatedly hampering Australia’s Asian Champions League teams in the domestic competition.

For the second successive season, the two Australian sides to qualify for Asia’s biggest club prize have struggled in the A-League.

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Last year, the 2014 ACL champion Western Sydney Wanderers finished second bottom of the A-League while Brisbane Roar only qualified for the finals due to Perth Glory’s elimination for salary cap infractions.

Now seventh-place Sydney FC must win their last two A-League games and hope Melbourne Victory, the other Australian ACL representative, lose both their games to have a chance of making the finals - and Arnold is certain this pattern is no accident.

“The schedule FFA give you is bordering on (being a) player welfare (issue),” Arnold said.

“You suffer in the A-League because you don’t get a chance to back up.

Graham Arnold says Sydney’s A-League form has suffered due to the ACL demands. Source: News Corp Australia

“We’ve had two games where you play in Japan or Korea on a Wednesday night and have to come back and play on a Saturday.

“God knows why we don’t play Sunday. It’s a snowball effect, it hurts their confidence, there’s fatigue and then the concentration goes and the mistakes (happen). That’s what we’re struggling with at the moment.

“Five years, six years, we’ve been saying this. I invited (FFA CEO) David Gallop and (former A-League chief) Damian de Bohun to travel with us four years ago.

“They keep doing it. They did it to the Wanderers last year - they nearly destroyed the club.

“People will stop turning up to watch and when people stop turning up, it’s hard to get them back.

“Look at the Koreans or Japanese, they play Wednesday night and play on Sunday or Monday when they get back. We land on Friday morning and fly straight to Melbourne - we don’t even go home. We fly straight to Melbourne, no training sessions, and play.”