Sydney FC has been fined $89,000 by Football Federation Australia for breaches of A-League player contract regulations last season.

The A-League champion was also docked one competition point but that penalty was suspended and the fine halved because the club co-operated with the investigation.

The FFA would not comment specifically on the nature of the breach with competition boss Matt Carroll describing it as "a breach of our regulations which includes the salary cap."

He said the issue had come to light after a regulation audit.

Sydney chief executive Tim Parker said it related to a failure to meet requirements for players' work in the community that they had been paid for.

He said that the club had underestimated the success of its inaugural season and over scheduled off-field commitments for its players.

"When we set up the club up and were recruiting players, we worked with the FFA to get approved additional services payments for the players, relating ... largely to work in the community," Parker told AAP.

"What happened was that we hadn't anticipated when we were going to be in not just the A-League but also the Oceania tournament, in Tahiti, the Club World Championship in Japan just before Christmas and then of course go into the entire finals season and end up winning the A-League, all of which was fantastic but meant that our football workload was such that we couldn't deliver a proportion of the additional services commitment."

Parker said the club had realised even before the Club World Championships that it would fall short and owned up to the FFA.

He said the club was taking the punishment "on the chin".

If Sydney is found guilty of further breaches this season the point penalty will be enforced along with any other further punishment that maybe imposed at the time, the FFA said.

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