Israel Folau payout ‘will hurt the rugby clubs’

RA’s settlement has sparked fears for the impact on Super Rugby and grassroots clubs.

Israel Folau with his wife Maria in Melbourne on the day they settled with Rugby Australia. Picture: Aaron Francis

Rugby Australia’s settlement with Israel Folau has failed to ease pressure on the sport’s top brass, with Attorney-General Christian Porter criticising the handling of the affair.

There were also fears for the impact on Super Rugby and grassroots clubs of the payout, believed to be around $3m.

Rugby WA chairman John Edwards said most Super Rugby teams “break even at best” and clubs would “be on edge” as the code’s financial state hinged on a broadcast deal in 2021.

“If they’ve carved out a reasonable amount for Izzy, I’d say there’d be a few clubs at risk now,” Mr Edwards said. “Anything out of the bank that goes to Izzy will have an impact on the way the game is played.”

Rugby WA chairman John Edwards. Picture: Getty

READ MORE: Game over for rugby’s disastrous head office , writes Alan Jones | Raelene Castle defends her role in Israel Folau saga | Castle should resign over Folau disaster, writes Janet Albrechtsen | Rugby chief calls for cool heads | Fast-track religious freedom, Israel urges | Folau case will continue to rumble, writes Wayne Smith

Rugby Australia chief Raelene Castle defended the settlement as a “commercial decision’’ that was cheaper for the game and would not undermine its bottom line. She labelled ­rumours of an $8m settlement as “wildly inaccurate”.

Ms Castle defended her position as the head of the game and said Rugby Australia had not backed down from its values of inclusiveness. “No, we didn’t get it wrong. At the end of the day we stood up for the values of Rugby Australia, the person that chose to breach the code of conduct was found guilty and his contract was ultimately terminated because of that.

“That stands up and continues to say, ‘This is an inclusive sport’,” Ms Castle said

“There won’t be any money taken out of community rugby and we won’t have to make any changes to the budget situation.”

Former Wallaby Mark Gerrard welcomed the end of the saga but warned there may be an impact at grassroots level.

“The ripple effect from this will come through the lower grades and the grassroots of the game and so in saying that there is going to be a huge financial hit from Rugby Australia, that’s just the nature of the beast unfortunately,” he told the ABC.

Mr Porter said Rugby Australia had “poorly managed” its disagreement with the axed star over his religious views. The ­Attorney-General also warned against corporate Australia getting involved in the private lives of individuals, with Coalition MPs saying the public was fed up with “organisations busily virtue-­signalling on every politically correct issue under the sun”.

Sports Minister Richard Colbeck said the confidential settlement between Folau and Rugby Australia was a chance for the game to return to its core ­business.

There have been rumblings about a spill motion among some quarters of the state unions to force outgoing Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne to resign effective immediately in the wake of the settlement.

The deal with Folau caps off a torrid year for the game’s national administration, following criticism of the Wallabies’ performance at the World Cup in Japan, the axing of the Western Force and the failure to identify an Australian candidate to replace ­Michael Cheika as the coach of the national team.

Folau’s four-year, $4m contract was torn up in May after a three-person panel found he was guilty of a “high-level breach’’ of the players’ code of conduct after an Instagram post in which he proclaimed hell awaited “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators thieves, atheists and idolaters’’.

Mr Porter said everyday Australians without the high profile of Folau had experienced similar treatment to the former Wallaby, who has claimed he was discriminated against because of his ­religion after posting his views about homosexuals on social media.

“I think the whole thing’s massively unfortunate and poorly managed by Rugby Australia,” Mr Porter told 6PR radio.

“It should never have gotten to this point.”

Making the case for the government’s religious discrimin­ation bill, Mr Porter said the Coalition was taking action to ­ensure that businesses could not terminate workers for their private religious views.

He said the government’s bill would prevent employers from terminating a staff member simply for stating their religious belief unless it was “absolutely necessary to protect the finances of the business”.

Applying the proposed law to the Folau case, Mr Porter suggested this would have been a difficult threshold for Rugby Australia to have met.

“Rugby Australia would have had to have argued that it was absolutely necessary (to terminate Folau) and that if they didn’t (sack him) … that they were going to suffer undue financial hardship,” he said.

“It would be very hard for them to show that if they did suffer some form of loss over the last year that that was because of Israel Folau rather than their handling of the Israel Folau matter.”

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce suggested that Ms Castle should step down as head of Rugby Australia. “Why is she still there?” he said.