He plays for Doncaster who have a £500 win bonus and £150 for losing, he'd struggle to make 15k!

Never heard of him.

Next!

The RFL have suspended him with immediate effect after betting on his team to lose a game. Quite right too!
Seven years ago the RFL should have suspended Long and Gleeson with immediate effect for the same offence.
They didn't and allowed them to play on including the 2004 Cup Final.
That was an absolute scandal!

some silly kid talks to the paper and the headline reads How RL players fix games!!!

Exactly my thoughts, it appeared to me the reporter was taking photo's of Leaf and Leaf blatently knew it was happening!



I don't think he was aiming to make a 'killing' out of the story, I don't think it was his actual intention for all this to come out. As for team-mates, Leaf did say something like "I know of other RL players doing the same....you can tell in a game who's bet on the match and who's not....even referees are in on it."

For me the referee bit is the most worrying.



Lifetime ban from RL - an almost certainty, he'll be playing in the NCL (National Conference League) soon enough, but sacked from his teaching job? I'm not sure that that could come to fruitition, although he may well face disciplinary action from his employer.

The Sun, News of the World, Daily Star - all LOVE blowing EVERYTHING totally out of proportion. I'd take that 'all RL players are betting and throwing matches' malarky with a pinch of salt, its simply to create headlines, get people talking about the story and the paper (that's a tick) and sell papers (which I imagine they have sold quite a few in relation to this).

But let's be honest, every criminal, conman, schoolroom cheat etc all say exactly the same thing when they get caught: "Lot's of other people are doing it too."

there is an interesting quote about a official being involved in that article.
hope that gets investigated too.
not that im defending the player at all but they seem to be villanised (is that even a word?) alot, the officials seem to be able to get away scott free. i

I like the quote abut him walking around his home town unrecognised. 95% of English RL fans would never had heard of him before now.

Hardly a scandal



What a complete dork though, fancy going into the bookies himself and putting it on

I think the no 1 of the most read stories down at the bottom is more interesting

What makes it worse is he has his Doncaster shirt on



Well im persuming its the tshirt they turn up in to matches/training.

Quins shirt everyone is saying.

at least most people are intelligent enough to realise a non story when they see one blogs.people.co.uk/nigel-wiskar-rugby-league/

at least most people are intelligent enough to realise a non story when they see one blogs.people.co.uk/nigel-wiskar-rugby-league/

Does Murdoch still own The Sun?

Yes. And The News Of The World and Sky, as well as Fox TV in the States. He's like a Bond villain!

Terrible time for the RL to recieve bad press then really, given they are negotiating a new TV deal.

Are we not pleased that the RFL are on the ball here? They have done what any PROPER organisation would do and will investigate quickly etc.

I am pleased about this as we usually get silence from our "leaders" let me re phrase this the RFL leaders, I would not want them anywhere near leading me as I suspect a number of Halifax fans may feel the same about one of the leaders.

What a pity they did not take this action some years ago and Father Ted has mentioned this and as many know (those of us at a Riversiders meeting) Millward knew of the details on the following Monday after Long and Gleeson had done something similar. The question is why did the RFL not take the same action and we can all surmise and speculate and of course they took over 2 months to identify what any normal people and business would have done within 2 days probably 2 hours to identify the situation and deal with it there and then. However the Challenge Cup Final was around the corner and Long was MoM so everything is OK.

This is the RFL an organisation that does not seem responsible to anyone, but just look at the salaries paid to its senior people. Are they worth their pay would you pay someone over £200k a year to have the profile we do? We are becoming a very second rate sport with a good product but flagging international profile and frankly a joke organisation e.g. Willie (I know the Tongan President) Mason etc. Unfortuantely I feel our days are numbered with a static salary cap, no international profile, matches shunted all over on terrestrial TV and but for a few clubs a low fan base unlike Union which has increased substantially in the last 5 years.

I am afraid where we will be in 5 years and my view is the powers that be put too many eggs in the (we need Yorkshire i.e. Leeds to succeed) and I know the Leeds fans will get uptight about these comments but please reflect on how long it took with Sky's massive input to get there. I will of course accept Leeds had a really good side and youth policy but believe they also had an advantage from Red Hall being based there. However this mail is not about the latter it is about where we stand in the sporting arena?

Storm in a T Cup, he wasnt playing in the game, the most he could be charged with is insider information as he knew his team were e.
The words "Sheffield Eagles" "bankrupt" "challenge cup final" and "16-1" springs to mind.

PS. Some may say theres no such thing as bad publicity.

Please let's not kid ourselves. This is absolutely awful for the credibility of the British game with the attitude some of the RL players have. How can we attract credible sponsors and bumper TV deals when stories like this are out there?

The RFL have FAILED to protect the credibility of the game when they didn't hand out life bans to Sean Long and Martin Gleeson. The RFL have to be VERY heavy-handed with this. This lad should be given a life ban from the game. They should conduct a thorough investigation and make a statement on the matter. To set an example and send a warning to anyone in the game who fancies a bet on their own team. We need to protect the credibility of the game. If players are betting on their teams to lose in the Super League, Championship 1 or 2 then fans are going to wonder what's the point in seeing something that isn't a contest? It shouldn't matter what competition you play in, how big a name you are or how old you are. You threaten the integrity of the game with something like this and you're banned from playing the game for life. No excuses, no exceptions.

.... and no winning bonus offered. !

Agreed!! remember though there's higher profile sports with similar/bigger problems than us in RL, its not good no, but lets not over exaggerate. Rugby League is in good shape in general

Its in better shape than Celtic eh mate? Champions again ole ole!!

Well there you have it. As we're negotiating a new TV deal (presumably with Sky) one of his pi$$ poor excuses for a newspaper runs a story which, when blown out of proportion as much as it has been in that article, can be used to drive down the money his other company (Sky) would have to pay us. Dave Whelan is nothing compared to this to$$er.