The utter hypocrisy spouted on this thread is beyond belief. Are you perfect then? It seems to me you are an unforgiving, intolerant tw*t. The sort of person that should be condemned by your own logic.

Quote ="Stanley30"Cats fans have to stand up to this. If this was my club I'd be straight on the phone demanding a refund on my season ticket. This horrible human being cannot represent your club and how could u stand there and cheer for him !!!'" Should have started with Bird then after he glassed a women. Just look at this report from 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ont-fix-it The game is in no position to try taking some moral high ground on whether Izzy can have a career in the game. I actually think if he has a great season and keeps his mouth shout he could end up back in the NRL next year. The NRL loves redemption stories.

Quote ="Stanley30"Cats fans have to stand up to this. If this was my club I'd be straight on the phone demanding a refund on my season ticket. This horrible human being cannot represent your club and how could u stand there and cheer for him !!!'" Should have started with Bird then after he glassed a women. Just look at this report from 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ont-fix-it The game is in no position to try taking some moral high ground on whether Izzy can have a career in the game. I actually think if he has a great season and keeps his mouth shout he could end up back in the NRL next year. The NRL loves redemption stories.

That is brilliant. Well done Wigan. Watch the t0sspot be "injured" that week!

If he is 80% as good as he was when young, he'll be the best player in the ESL.
He was the best player in the NRL, and he has been the best attacking player in Australian Union for a very long time.
60 tries in 92 games for the Waratahs doesn't sound impressive in League terms, but that's a lot of tries for Union, and just about every week the opposition would stack the defence just to try to contain Falou.
If the halfback can put up kicks to create a fair contest for the ball between Izzy and anyone else, Izzy is coming down with that ball.

For the sake of accuracy, he didn't say they should burn in hell. He said that, according to his religious beliefs, they, and a long list of other "sinners", will burn in hell, unless they repent - yadda, yadda, yadda - I'm sure you all heard the same stuff in Sunday school.
I have a lot of seventh day adventist relatives who, according to their facebook feeds, donated money to Izzy for his legal costs (he got millions), and have now decided they are all Catalans fans.
I live about 10 minutes away from a seventh day adventist university and a huge number of the students are polynesians, and they not only support Izzy, they think he's some sort of religious martyr.

Izzy went to great lengths to deny that he hates gays - he just believes that his God will send them to hell.

I am an atheist, so don't care in the least what his religion says about who is and who isn't going to a place that doesn't exist, but I've had enough contact with fundamentalist christians to not even be a little bit outraged by their beliefs. They really do believe this stuff.

It's about opinions, if you can't accept what he says then maybe you shouldn't respond with needless abuse.

Quote ="puroresu_boy"Should have started with Bird then after he glassed a women. Just look at this report from 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ont-fix-it The game is in no position to try taking some moral high ground on whether Izzy can have a career in the game. I actually think if he has a great season and keeps his mouth shout he could end up back in the NRL next year. The NRL loves redemption stories.'" There was some outcry when they signed Bird, who during his time in SL was a waste of talent and a waste of money and it's little wonder that given the "characters" hat Catalan regularly sign, they end up with a poor "team". It must do wonders for team spirit playing alongside some of those players. RL should clean up its act. What effect do you think that signing these people actually does for the game, I certainly havent seen a stampede of sponsors and advertising companies making a B line to hand over their cash. The next time you see someone beaten up for being gay, especially if you know them, you may begin to wonder why people do such things.

Quote ="puroresu_boy"Should have started with Bird then after he glassed a women. Just look at this report from 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ont-fix-it The game is in no position to try taking some moral high ground on whether Izzy can have a career in the game. I actually think if he has a great season and keeps his mouth shout he could end up back in the NRL next year. The NRL loves redemption stories.'" There was some outcry when they signed Bird, who during his time in SL was a waste of talent and a waste of money and it's little wonder that given the "characters" hat Catalan regularly sign, they end up with a poor "team". It must do wonders for team spirit playing alongside some of those players. RL should clean up its act. What effect do you think that signing these people actually does for the game, I certainly havent seen a stampede of sponsors and advertising companies making a B line to hand over their cash. The next time you see someone beaten up for being gay, especially if you know them, you may begin to wonder why people do such things.

Robert Elstone: ”Super League does not have the authority to veto the registration of players and is satisfied by the due diligence carried out by the RFL.

We all know how good the RFLs due diligence has proven to be- Chalmers and Green

Isn’t the point. If Wigan were interested in him then fine that’s up to them but to announce you were interested in him literally hours after making it clear you are opposed to him signing for Catalan, is embarrassing. Wigan trying to take the moral high ground doesn’t work at all when they’ve backed players who’ve done far worse than Folau.

Elsotne, legally speaking, is probably right, in that SL cant prevent his registration with one of their "members", which points the finger directly at Catalan for choosing to employ the guy.
It's their decision and it is they who will "profit" of "suffer" on the back of their decision.

A sensible post. I have no real opinion on him but from following his spat with Aus Union I think I am right that they only ditched him after a lot of sponsors threatened to pull out if he played? Otherwise he would still be playing for them!

Off the top of my head all of following have been in RL recently

Wife beating
Drug taking
Drink driving
GBH
Assault
Tazering a police officer after a high speed car chase
Assault on a drugs tester (sadly my own team has given that cretin a job)
Banging a team mates wife
Homophobic abuse
Glass/bottling a team mate
Gambling on your own team to lose.
Breaking and entering
Urinating in your own mouth on camera
Abuse toward females
Sex act with a dog

All of which were give second (and in some cases 4th or 5th) chances. And whilst i dont agree with all those chances being given, it seems a touch hypocritical to suggest Izzy shouldnt be allowed to play in SL

After the first incident they gave him a new 4 year contract.

Ben Barba got banned for life by the NRL. If that never happened I have no doubt he would be playing in SL right now.

you forgot the doggie blow job

I think our chairman summed it up perfectly, we have become a safety net for anybody who has been kicked out of other competitions.

This is not just directed at Folau by the way but IMO we should have the same morals as the NRL and RFU when it comes to our expectations on how our `professionals`should behave. It is a crying shame that rugby league in this country is desperate for any talent that they can take.

Good point.
List now updated

Israel is a bit different but I'm proud that as a sport we have supported people like Hardaker have been persisted with and given opportunities to reform and learn, rather than just cast out.

I think its a bit of a joke all these people carrying on about someone coming out with a list of people who he believes are going to hell but then cheering on and singing the name of Robert Lui.

Stuff like sexual offences, domestic abuse etc we should not entertain at all. But if someone is young and making mistakes then both the carrot and the stick should be used.

Greenburg is trying to clean up the NRL but more importantly their needs to be a real culture change driven by the players. More often than not the stupid actions are alcohol fueled and there should be a debate about how much players drink.

Why professional athletes would want to drink alcohol I dont know but Rugby still has a drinking culture and that needs to change. Is it any wonder young players end up doing stupid things after drinking when the dressing rooms they enter that is the culture.

I would guess players over also love a drink and out on the lash but its different in the sense the media spotlight is not the same. Players could go out in Manchester, Newcastle, London etc and nobody knows who they are.

Before i start let me just say that I do not agree with the views of Israel Folau.
I do however find it ironic that whilst people are expected and demanded to show respect and tolerance to gay people the same doesn't apply to anyone who has a different viewpoint.
To my knowledge he has posted his views on the internet yet he is a bigger villain than a wife beater.
If like me you dont like his views dont read them, but show the same respect for his views as you would others.

My sexuality is an immutable fact, my philosophical opinions are not. People are not only driven into depression and personal trauma, but forced to run away from their homes, imprisoned, in some cases murdered as a direct consequence of the line Folau pushed to 100,000 people. You really ought to think more deeply about the equivalence you have just made. And don't use that grubby comparison with domestic violence (a heinous,entirely separate issue) to make your point.

It's quite the strawman you have created here, and I'm not sure what its purpose is. Many of us are quite able to think the likes of Lui and Bird should be nowhere near Super League and equally think the same of Folau. I have always advocated a one-strike policy on domestic violence. Though the idea that urinating in your own mouth or 'banging a team mates wife' are remotely comparable is quite laughable really.

100%, abuse (domestic or otherwise)is not comparable to hatred on the grounds of sexuality, which is abhorrent. Some agree, some disagree, and as has been said before, if anyone went to an RL ground and shouted "Death to infidels, Allah commands it" there would be a stampede to the gates and said individual would be arrested.

That is different though isnt it as that is inciting hated.

Saying all gay people are destined for hell unless they repent isn't calling for gays to be killed.

[url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/51293635I hope the homophobe can read, he is NOT welcome[/url

I am sure there is a Ministry in Utah that needs him.