He's not that good I doubt anyone would want to sign him.

Your slipping, thought you might have entered Skolars or something

Christ knows!

Technically its a UK visa, but issued on the basis of certain nationality, but I know what you mean

Heard York was interested but they think Thorman is a better player.

Can he have 2 Visa's runing side by side and a quick trip to france and back will let him swap which one he is on?
Or could it be that the Visa folks just need his passport details where as the RFL actually need to see the passport itself.

If he's travelled on his nz passport then surely he's come with that on his visa, will he have to get a new visa when his Tongan passport is received?

So many ifs and buts isn't there lol

My worrying thought is that if its only temporary would it not be easier to "de-register" vella for this? Not saying he isn't important but we have more cover in that area then we do at the halves

Vella isn't on the overseas quota though. De-registering him wouldn't make any difference

You'd think the obvious choice would have been Clinton ? Whose rumoured to want away anyway.

Considering Vella doesn't count on the quota then no.

That's exactly what I was thinking god what a bloody mess

Isnt he on a Maltese passport?

Clinton has apparently relocated to Brough and is a lot more settled there.

And seeing as he will be playing on Sunday, de-registering him wouldn't be a wise move.

And also stop saying why not de-register Vella. You might as well de-register Netherton, it won't make a difference.

His EU passport takes him off the quota, because he signed pre 2008 takes him off non fed.

I can see that I might have to start charging for visa advice.....

I don't know of a restriction on the number of visas, but it would probably confuse the Immigration Officer as there would be conflicting records of arrivals and visa numbers might not match up properly on the IT system, so they'd probably want him to be on one passport and one visa.

The visa folks will need to see his passport each time he travels in and out of the country, but I think the above issue is more to do with the interpretation of the RFL operational rules on the quota. I don't imagine renewing the visa in the Tongan passport will be an issue. But it will cost just over a grand to get it done quickly, and that also means the passport has to be issued and arrive here. It was illegal to send a passport across international borders, but don't think it is now. Maybe Hudge will camp outside the Tongan High Commiossion to wait for it arriving in the diplomatic bag.

Better keep it out of the sun then, We'd be fookered if it melted.

The Tongan passport must just be for the RFL I imagine. That is likely what we've been waiting for (and still are it seems). The assertions that he has had his visa for a while look plausible again.

I'd be curious to see the rules about de- and re-registering players. I can't imagine they allow you to rotate your spots between whoever is fit to play at any given time, all that easily.

IIRC (and my memory may be playing tricks) you could de-register a player due to injury (Wigan did that with someone, Brian Carney, for cap reasons I belive), but it used to be a one way thing, ie once someone was de-registered that was it for the season, you can/couldn't flip them back and forth to suit circumstance.

But de-registration is not the same as terminating someones contract, so unless someone at rovers has dropped a clanger Dobson is still on contract, but not registered, and the RFL has put out a dodgy press release/website article.

yes your correct but vella wouldn't count because of his eu passport as i was corrected, if clinton was to be on the way out he would be the obvious one but it seems like he'l be in the 19 for sunday.

looks like dobbo was the only candidate. i cant imagine it will affect his contact in anyway and if it did we could always pay him his wages to water the plants

I've merged the two threads - hopefully still makes sense.

That's my reading of it. He's had the visa a while but as the quota won't let him play (or train?) here then he's not bothered to travel. The Dobson injury opened up an option and he's arrived.

As long as the RFL allow someone to "be" one nationality while travelling on a passport from a third country, he'll be OK. But he may be able to transfer the visa to the Tongan passport too.

If it arrives.

The Operational Rules only give one method to remove a contracted player from the register - termination of contract:



This would explain the RFL statement, and would mean that Dobson is currently a free agent.

Farcical.

Your right, a player who is de registered can't be re registered in the same season.

Lets hope your Board have thought this one through and got the ok from the RFL.

RE-REGISTRATION OF AN OVERSEAS PLAYER
C1:4:7 An "overseas Player" who is removed from a Club Register during the Season cannot then be placed back on that Club's Register in that same Season save with the permission of the Board.