Folau secures Catalans release, free to play in Gold Coast park comp
Catalans Dragons have agreed to release former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau from the rest of his contract to enable him to resume his career in Australia, the French rugby league club said on Monday.
Folau had lodged a Supreme Court injunction against the Queensland Rugby League after the sport’s governing body refused his registration to play for an amateur club because he was still contracted to his Super League side.
Israel Folau is free to play if the QRL registers his contract.Credit:Getty
The 32-year-old centre began negotiations with the Catalans last week over a release and the club have now confirmed they had come to a settlement.
“Israel has been great with us in 2020 both on and off the field and we wanted to facilitate the negotiations to reach an agreement,” Catalans chairman Bernard Guasch said in a statement.
“He told us his desire to play alongside his two brothers and we didn’t want to prevent him [doing so]. We wish him all the best in the next chapter of his career.”
Dual code international Folau, who was sacked by Rugby Australia in 2019 for a social media post deemed discriminatory by the rugby union federation, was handed a lifeline by the Catalans ahead of the 2020 season.
He played in 15 out of a possible 17 matches last season and agreed to a one-year contract extension to the end of 2021 but the Dragons allowed him to miss the start of the new season in order to attend to family matters in Australia.
The release will allow Folau to be registered to play alongside his two brothers at the Southport Tigers in the Gold Coast amateur competition.
Folau played for the Kangaroos before switching to AFL in 2011, jumping codes once again to rugby in 2013.
A fundamentalist Christian, Folau had his Wallabies and Super Rugby deals terminated in 2019 after posting a meme that said hell awaited “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers” and others.
Reuters
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