PFAI Player Executive Ollie Cahill said the League of Ireland's club licensing process has to be questioned in the wake of Bray Wanderers's public admittance that they cannot guarantee their players' wages until the end of the current campaign.
It's exactly a year since the Seagulls ran into similar problems, and they now find themselves in an even in an even bleaker situation.
They are nine points adrift at the bottom of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table and have made all of their players available for transfer.
"Bray Wanderers have reluctantly decided to listen to offers for any of their players," a club statement read.
"Given the club's inability to guarantee wages until the end of the season, it's only fair to give the players an opportunity to secure employment elsewhere."
Cahill said the PFAI have asked the FAI for clarity on the players' positions, adding that they are not yet free to go.
"At the minute, no they're not free agents just yet," he told RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue.
"There's a FIFA rule that says if they go two months without payment that they can become free agents but there's a domestic rule which states one month. We're just looking for clarity on that issue as well.
"We've written to the FAI on three or four occasions to seek meetings with them, to look for clarity on the situation. To date we haven't had any meetings. We wrote again this morning to look for clarity on certain things."
Cahill revealed that Bray did not train Tuesday night and may not train tomorrow if wages owed do not come through. They're due to host Sligo Rovers in the league on Sunday.
"Hopefully [the wages] will come through on Thursday but as it stands at the moment the players haven't been paid.
"[Tuesday] night there was no wages, there was no physio for training, so the players didn't train. If they're not paid tomorrow [Thursday] they will not train again tomorrow night. We'll assess it then after that.
"Let's just see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully they do get paid and we can move on but we'll be looking for guarantees beyond that as well as to the rest of the season.
"Players just want to concentrate on playing football and not have to worry about this sort of stuff. You sign a contract at the start of the year, you don't want to be worrying are you going to be getting paid week to week, month to month, whatever it is.
"They're rock bottom of the table; you need all the players pulling in the same direction, going out and performing, trying to bridge that gap to the teams above them, but in this situation it's very difficult for them to get their heads around playing football."
In February Bray were granted a license to compete in the league but the latest revelations led Cahill to query just how they were awarded that status.
"It does make you question the whole process," he said.
"If they were in this position last year, how are they back in this position again? You'd have thought they'd have been even more stringent on Bray considering what went on.
"This time last year they were in the exact same position."
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