Toronto Wolfpack could be forced to pull out of this season's Super League campaign when it resumes in August, because visa issues could rob them of up to seven players, including multi-million pound signing Sonny Bill Williams. Apparently Wolfpack representatives took part in a meeting of clubs earlier this week, and were unable to guarantee they would be able to complete fixtures in 2020.

The club say visas for seven overseas players, from Australia and New Zealand, only allow them to stay in England for a maximum of six months. That time limit has been exceeded because they have been forced to remain here during lockdown and they will now have to return home.

It is also understood that the club is facing financial stresses as well with rumours persisting of players being regularly paid late.The Rugby Football League has still to decide whether relegation from the Super League will be scrapped this year. If it is not, then the Wolfpack would be heavy favourites for the drop if they were to lose the core of their squad, as they are already bottom of the league.

What a shame not maybe if they do go our RFL will bloody wake up and not let other teams that are thousands of miles away join us

Well to be fair the RFL at the time were run by Nigel Wood, and he was lined up for a job in International RL with the RLIF. He'd have scuppered his CV if he hadn't let them in. In addition the RL world cup was scheduled for North America when TWP as a North American club asked for entry. This was exactly what the World Cup was supposed to stimulate.

The only duff decision was to allow TWP into Superleague and relegate the only real expansion flagship we had which was London, this being at a time when the World cup had been pulled from North America and TWP had failed to expand anything - and in my opinion [udidn't even try to do so[/u

The one thing that sticks out for me is the "Players getting paid late". How can a $$Multi Billionaire owner with $$Billions more flowing out of his Brazilian mines not pay on time?

Love the borderline casual racism on this thread.

I mean imagine being in any other profession or industry and saying you didn't want new colleagues from thousands of miles away / another country joining your organisation. 'Yes, why do we let these Drs and nurses from thousands of miles away (who are now having visa problems) work for the NHS'.

You would almost certainly end up on some equality and diversity refresher training and worst case scenario you would be out the door shortly after you had finished the sentence.

That’s a strange thing to say the doctors and nurses who work for the NHS stay in this country we do not have to travel thousands of miles to see them do we

To be fair, the complaints seem to be logistical rather than discriminatory here!

It’s a mess, but this pandemic has messed up a lot of plans, well laid and otherwise.

An article from last year covering the same issue in a bit more detail. https://www.patreon.com/posts/questions-around-27527382

An article from last year covering the same issue in a bit more detail. https://www.patreon.com/posts/questions-around-27527382

So the visas only covered for 6 months, something doesn't add up here, two weeks before the restart and it only just comes to light

As for calling it racists comments you need to get a grip feller

Evidence please

Amazing really when all the talk that you hear is they are in long term contract talks with Ward , Myler and Hall which have been going on recently .

Quote ="Steph Curry"Evidence please'" The BBC website....but no actual evidence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53414894

Quote ="Steph Curry"Evidence please'" The BBC website....but no actual evidence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53414894

Get rid then welcome in Leigh London and Fev job done. The whole concept of a Canadian side was ridiculous.

or Halifax ?

Quote ="Steph Curry"Evidence please'" https://cfjctoday.com/2020/04/17/wolfpa ... -pandemic/ There you go sweetheart no mention of late payments but some players and staff taking up to 60-70% pay cuts nice eh

Quote ="Steph Curry"Evidence please'" https://cfjctoday.com/2020/04/17/wolfpa ... -pandemic/ There you go sweetheart no mention of late payments but some players and staff taking up to 60-70% pay cuts nice eh

Why not?

Or Bradford? (Ducks for cover)

Clickbait thread title.

Toronto will be fine. They'll either get Visa extensions or loan players to finish out the year similar to Nz Warriors.

[iJohn Davidson@johnnydavidson

""As I (Mr Davidson Sports Journo) understand it, the visa situation at Toronto Wolfpack is just the tip of the iceberg - players are continually paid wages late, creditors are owed money, they face one lawsuit in Canada and the business model sees them lose millions every year. There's more to come on this"".
[/i

latest informed view....... One thing they have always been good at is talk.......

You need to take that back, the Toronto players are of the same racial mix as all the other Superleague squads. There is no question of racism on this site.....

What about Newcastle Widnes and Bradford? WHAT ABOUT a six club tournament in October/November to see who gets promoted into TWP's place.

That is if they did leave the league. Nothing has been decided yet, the Visas may just be extended.

Whether Argyle extends (or maybe resurrects, that may be the better word) his philanthropy is another thing....

Definitely not Fax. The club hasn't got the finances or strength behind the scenes for SL.

TWP aren't gone yet, and one thing Fax do have is some good players...Here is Argyle:-

[i“It’s been suggested to us that we could loan young players from other clubs, but we’re not here to make up the numbers and we never have been. We didn’t hire Brian McDermott as coach to do that. We also feel that it would be dangerous for us to fill our squad with other clubs' juniors, especially at a time when players might only have four days’ rest between matches.”[/i

So as it appears that the Championship isn't going to return, there could well be some very good senior lads in the Championship who could be loaned out to TWP to join the 17 TWP players not affected by the Visa issues. Fax have half a dozen don't they and they only have to play here if they have jobs. Fairbank. Tyrer, Murrell, Sharpe????

When there is no relegation why is Argyle concerned about the quality of their squad if the visas are not extended for their non based UK players ? It would only affect their chances of maybe a challenge cup run, doubt they would have finished near the top of SL anyway.

So no different to every other super league team then.

Still awaiting evidence of the late payments

TIA

Far preferable imo