news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 142408.stm could be all over for them if true...

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 142408.stm could be all over for them if true...

They could face big fines and possible prosecutions. Will be interesting to see how this develops...

So long as the correct information has been given to the immigration authorities they should be ok, if not someone could be right up the creek

TBH it doesn't look good can't remember any other club being investigated by the border agency.

Hopefully its just teething problems with the new Visa restrictions. Doubt it will be anything too serious.

One can't help but wonder if anyone would be using, ahem, the 'dark arts', to try derail Celtic. Seems to be an odd one this one - can't imagine only one team in one sport would have trouble with visas in this day and age.

You know, I though pretty much the same thing...I wonder if there has been any stirring by, say, a disgruntled NL1 club.

Who COULD you mean?

I was thinking of the WRU

Likewise, but I could be completely wrong. I just can't believe no other team in any other sport wouldn't have hit the same trouble.

Oh of course, it has to be something to do with a CHAMPIONSHIP (get with times) club. Nothing to do with perhaps the RFL or New South Wales Crusaders

If you are trying to suggest Widnes then you are about a million miles away from the truth..

SOC @ Widnes Vikings has handled himself impeccably from the start of the franchising process right through to the sorry mess that it has become..

This comes down to professionalism. Outside of Football there are few sports that have as many imports as the Crusaders have.

Insinuating wrong doing is just childish. We all know the Crusaders can do no wrong but come on this is just silly.

Its a farce always has been end of.

Have to say I was amazed when the likes of Duggan, Quinn et al were granted visas when their playing record (in terms of standard played at) was lower than some other players who got rejected at other clubs. They were basically 3rd & 4th grade players from Oz who had then played in the lower leagues here, none of which met the visa criteria. Players like Joe Williams who had played in the NRL were not given visas, so one wonders how these ones were ?

You bit early there son!

Indeed...

Wouldn't last five minutes in this ocean..

Which begs the question as to how they got visas when they were in the National Leagues. Same rules apply don't they?

The process changed from last season to this. IIRC quite a few imports in the Championship and below had problems with the new rules this season, and some were unable to get back in even though they had been playing here before and were part way through contracts.

You'd have to expect that there will be nothing found. If the player's arrival were delayed whilst these VISA issues were cleared up in the first place then surely it was because everything was being done by the book.

Widnes by any chance? Your misguided hatred of us is bordering on delusional. When are you going to get it through your thick skull that Widnes Vikings as a club and their fans have moved on and are solely focused on our own future? You're a pathetic stirring keyboard warrior.

No, prior to this year players were able to come on "holiday and student" visas which had no onerous pre-qualifying criteria. Many of the players in NL1 and NL2 were playing on these.

From this year the rules changed and players must obtain a full employment visa and to get this there were certain criteria including having played at the highest level domestically (in their own country) for a certain number of games or had so many caps for their country in full test matches etc

The only stirring is on here.

Your response alone seems to suggest otherwise.

And I mentioned no club at all, everything else is your own, very paranoid inference.

Maybe you are a little bit too defensive though to be entirely innocent.

And FWIW, from my observation on this forum, Widnes fans, at least the most vocal ones, have far from moved on, limpets cling to a subject less vigourously.