Former Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey is suing the football club for money owed after being sacked last year.

He is seeking $270,000 plus damages for deceit and misleading conduct from the A-League club, papers lodged in the Brisbane District Court revealed on Wednesday.

The figure amounts to an 18-month payout under the terms of his employment agreement.

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Mulvey, who took up the position in December 2012, alleged he only found out he had been axed through reading a newspaper article.

He was fired in November 2014, six months after he led the Roar to their latest championship.

His lawyer Matt McCormick said the former coach had hoped the matter could be settled out of court.

Mulvey did not sue until now because of an emotional attachment to the club and the players were at the beginning of the season when he was fired.

“Mike’s been very silent with it, his last resort was to file the claim,” McCormick said. “He never really wanted this grievance in the public air, which now it is.”

Mulvey was the A-League coach of the year. He then got sacked the following season. Photo: Getty

At the time, Roar’s managing director Sean Dobson said Mulvey’s firing was more about his training methods.

“We were premiers yes, but we also weren’t happy,” he said in 2014.

In his statement of claim, Mulvey outlined an extraordinary sequence of events where three employment agreements were made verbally between 2012 and 2014.

The agreements were written but never signed.

The statement of claim said during discussions Mr Dobson told Mulvey the Roar wanted to align his salary package to that of other A-League coaches to “align [the Roars] future and build a destiny” with him.

The documents state that in March 2014 Mr Dobson offered Mulvey a four-year deal of “$800,000, with a bonus”.

Just two months later, he offered a three-year contract of $1 million, including a bonus each season and a “no outs” clause.

The first sign something was amiss came in June 2014, when Mr Dobson said: “We have cash flow issues but it will be all sorted when you return.”

The documents revealed at the end of September last year, Mr Dobson, dropped the bombshell with words to the effect of: “I need first of all to let you know that I have not been honest with you … I have been deliberately stalling on your contracts … I have been concerned about some issues for quite a while.”

When Mulvey asked if his $350,000 per year deal was not going to be honoured, Dobson replied: “That’s right.”

A spokesman for the Roar says the club’s lawyers will review the documents lodged by Mulvey.

– ABC