IZZY ‘ELIGIBLE’ ASAP FOR TIGERS
Israel Folau’s legal team gearing up for a showdown with the Queensland Rugby League as lawyers argue he is eligible to play
ISRAEL Folau’s legal team argue he is eligible to be immediately registered by the Queensland Rugby League as his ex-UK Super League team breached its contract by failing to pay him or budget for him under its salary cap. The claims are revealed in legal letters between Folau’s lawyers and the QRL and lodged with the Supreme Court in an eleventhhour injunction application due to be heard in court on Friday. Folau has been offered $250,000 by billionaire Clive Palmer to play for the Southport Tigers.
ISRAEL Folau’s bid to play for the Southport Tigers on the Gold Coast will ramp up today when his injunction application is heard in the Queensland Supreme Court.
The former NRL and Super Rugby player, who is heavily backed by billionaire and Southport club patron Clive Palmer, is fighting to get his registration approved by the QRL.
The QRL have so far blocked his moves to return to the sport by claiming he is still contracted with UK Super League club The Catalans
Dragons but in documents filed ahead of today’s proceedings the controversial football player believes he should be free to play given he hasn’t been paid by the Dragons for some time and wasn’t included in its salary cap budget plans for 2021.
Israel Folau’s legal team argue he is eligible to be immediately registered by the Queensland Rugby League because his former UK Super League team breached its contract by failing to pay him or budget for him under its salary cap.
The claims were revealed in legal letters sent between Folau’s lawyers and the QRL and lodged with the Supreme Court as part of an eleventhhour injunction application due to be heard in court on
Friday.
Folau, 32, is seeking to return to play rugby league in Australia but the QRL says it cannot register his contract unless it is given permission to do so by his UK Super League team The Catalans Dragons who he is contracted with until November this year.
Folau has been offered $250,000 by billionaire and Southport club patron Clive Palmer to play for the Southport Tigers.
Mr Palmer is backing the Supreme Court injunction
application which has been lodged by the mining magnate’s go-to lawyer Sam Iskander.
In a legal letter lodged with the court and dated May 25 from Mr Iskander to the QRL, the lawyer says under Folau’s contract with Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy, he is bound to play only for the Southport Tigers for the current season.
“… Mr Folau has received strong advice that Catalan has repudiated its contract with Mr Folau by failing to make payments to him under
the contract after December 2020,” Mr Iskander wrote in the letter.“
Mr Folau has accepted repudiation by Catalan as he’s legally entitled and has terminated the contract.”
He said Folau had not been included in the Catalans’ 2021 playing squad and the club had not budgeted for him in its salary cap which he says was a breach of contract.
Folau was sacked by Rugby Australia in 2019 over comments he made on social media about same-sex relationships and religion.
Mr Iskander wrote that Folau’s religious beliefs were “not a basis to restrict him from his profession”.
“Any discrimination on religious grounds cannot be tolerated in Australia and we (are) instructed to defend his rights accordingly,” he said.
In a return later the following day on May 26 from Mullins Lawyers acting for the QRL that was also lodged with the court, the league said it was concerned Folau did not have the necessary clearance to be registered required under the bylaws.