Small point, if it was an employment tribunal, Solomona can't be held accountable for Castleford Tigers legal costs. The only way to claim costs over and above the loss directly attributed to the breach of contract is if the cause of the breach was discrimination.

There is also another point, you can get legal insurance as part of your house instance, which covers employment cases. So neither Solomona or Sale may need to pay any costs, other than an excess. Likewise, Castleford may be covered by similar insurance.

The likely course of event in my opinion is that it will go to ACAS and a COT3 settlement (non liability compensation which is held in confidence) will be issued. It won't make court.

The 'retire' argument would instantly fail anyway, he is before the legal retirement age. "Retirement" of sports players is really just a term used in media i.e. they are simply not taking up a further sports contract. They are actually not retiring in a legal sense.

The only way to leave a contract early from an employee point of view is to go for Constructive Dismissal;



Beyond that as far as I can tell, you would be responsible for any material losses (this need to be provable - you can't just say 3 years wages etc, which is VERY difficult). As per my previous post, they can't claim fees over the loss.

There is no "Legal Retirement Age" in the UK (with the exception of certain professions such as the fire service and armed forces), a person can retire at any age they choose, they just won't be eligible for a state provided pension until they reach a pensionable age (even then, people can continue to work and draw a pension)

Regardless. Solomona clearly isn't retired. He is seeking employment.

Solomona reminds me of Michael Scott in the American version of the office thinking he can just shout 'I declare bankruptcy' and all his debts disappear

You can still seek employment following retirement. He has said he has retired from one sport, he then wants to look for employment in a different sport, you can even come back from retirement into the same sport (like Jamie Peacock did for HKR). If it goes to court then it's down to the judge to decide if union and league are effectively the same sport, but given the large difference in rules, separate governing bodies and time since the split I can't see that happening

Retired from one particular job isn't a legal status.

You are right. There is no legal retirement age, I thought there was in all honesty but it's been withdrawn apparently, so my error. But that actually makes the argument that retirement can't be held as a legal status anyway. Making the claim even more unlikely to be held.

"Retirement" from a sport is just a turn of phrase, it makes no difference from a contractual point of view.

From what I have seen, I think it's a pretty clear cut breach of contract personally. If Castleford Tigers or the RFL can demonstrate losses though is another matter.

It's not that complex if this is an employment matter. It's down to if he has breached the conditions of his contract. Were he is going is irrelevant, unless you are trying to enforce a competition clause as well (trying to stop that employment taking place as it creates an unfair competitive advantage - those are rarely enforceable), you could even be quitting work altogether, you can still be in a breach of contract.

Where there is no case, is against the Employer (Sale RU) from what I can see. If they have employed somebody in good faith that they have left their previous employment, then they are free to do so and the RU are unlikely to recognise the RFL in terms of stopping this, as you say they are separate governing bodies, but that hasn't got anything to do with employment law. Saying that, I would hope that the RU do respect the RFL, and vice versa in this matter, and maybe this is an opportunity to develop an agreement.

In League Express, DS has now got a work permit for RU. The RFL have failed to resolve the dispute with the RFU and they have failed in their attemps to speak to Premiership Rugby (the governing body that oversees top tier domestic RU in England). The legal team are now waiting to hear the news that Sale have signed DS before planning their next move. Here:- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy3AXreWEAAoUKS.jpg:large

In League Express, DS has now got a work permit for RU. The RFL have failed to resolve the dispute with the RFU and they have failed in their attemps to speak to Premiership Rugby (the governing body that oversees top tier domestic RU in England). The legal team are now waiting to hear the news that Sale have signed DS before planning their next move. Here:- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy3AXreWEAAoUKS.jpg:large

His retirement might not last long after reading this write up for Charnley. Unless Denny enjoys getting paid to stand catching kicks

And that's the difference in playing Union and playing on the wing for an expansive attacking side like Wigan (or Castleford, in Solomonas case).
My lad played Union for 15 years and he's now playing League and unless your in the pack or playing fly half, it can be one hell of a boring game.
The other aspect ifs tackling where the Union boys are top tackler with 15 is tackles a game, which barely registers on the stats in League.
Having said that, there is way more money in Union and it must be tempting to go to the dark side, if only for the cash.

If the legal case against Denny is successful do we have to wait for Sale to sign Solomona before taking them to court too, can we not go after them for harboring a criminal lol.

One thing about this whole episode away from the legal issues is that given how many RL converts have struggled in the recent past I find it strange that Sale are trying to convert two RL wingers at the same time.

Quote ="Tigerade"In League Express, DS has now got a work permit for RU. The RFL have failed to resolve the dispute with the RFU and they have failed in their attemps to speak to Premiership Rugby (the governing body that oversees top tier domestic RU in England). The legal team are now waiting to hear the news that Sale have signed DS before planning their next move. Here:- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy3AXreWEAAoUKS.jpg:large'" As if the RFU or premiership Rugby was ever gonna put a stop to this saga. Not a chance in hell. The RFL need to show Denny that his behavior won't be accepted. Slap that ban on him.

Quote ="Tigerade"In League Express, DS has now got a work permit for RU. The RFL have failed to resolve the dispute with the RFU and they have failed in their attemps to speak to Premiership Rugby (the governing body that oversees top tier domestic RU in England). The legal team are now waiting to hear the news that Sale have signed DS before planning their next move. Here:- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy3AXreWEAAoUKS.jpg:large'" As if the RFU or premiership Rugby was ever gonna put a stop to this saga. Not a chance in hell. The RFL need to show Denny that his behavior won't be accepted. Slap that ban on him.

I hope Solomona sleeps well at night, I suspect he does.
Disgusting behaviour.

If Solomona does go, it would be a smart move for the RFL and NRL to put out a statement that they don't recognise RFU'S registration and that RU players can be immefiately registered then see if anyone wants to put in a decent sized bid for Farrell and Ford with RFL help.

The very least it would do is force the value of those type players up, improve their bargaining position and increase instability in their clubs contracts. If we keep targeting their better players mid contract. Even if only to force their prices up. The RFU'S clubs tune will soon change.

The problem with this is our salary cap is less than half of theirs, they will always have more wiggle room than we have. Yes, they may have to pay some of their players a bit more to keep them, but when they can offer a league player double what he earns in RL then the only losers will be league. The better option would be to do what Union used to do and bar the player from ever being registered to play league again in any country. That would make players think twice about if they will switch as they will have no fall back plan to return to league if they don't like union

I agree with the sentiment, but that was back in the time when Union had their "amateur" status.

I can't imagine that professional RL could indefinitely prevent a player's registration nowadays without the employment lawyers and the human rights brigade getting involved and arguing that you're essentially preventing somebody from working.

The issue is potentially massive though. If the RFU has enough resource it could centrally entice all the best RL players to RU by just offering big wages (and no transfer fees) and RL clubs would either have to match inflated wages or concede the player. Given the financial state of many RL clubs it wouldn't be sustainable for them to do this. I would assume too that the RFL doesn't have enough financial resource to take on the central RFU either in support of the RL clubs.

This could have a devastating effect on RL in this country.

I like it !
IF RL didnt have to pay a transfer fee, each club could go for a Union player as their marquee signing and perhaps in the NRL as wwll (where they have greater spending power). Of course, there would then just be the small issue of players wanting to come to RL, with it's mickey poor International profile

I'm not sure, employment in a particular job isn't a given human right, they wouldn't be stopping him gaining employment elsewhere, just not for their organisation. The other way to do it would be to value every single player who leaves to join union at £1,500,000. That technically wouldn't stop them being able to return to League, they'd just have to find a club who was willing to place them into team and absorb 80% of the salary cap in a single player

The thing is, even if we don't get them. It damages the RFU clubs. We go directly every single England player pool. Offer them all 500k to 1m a year. Even if none of them sign. They are knocking on their clubs door for more money. We probably can't compete in a financial war. We can probably disrupt their market enough to force them in to a truce.

Our point isn't to outbid them. Our point is to disrupt their market. They may have more money they may have more wiggle room. Make them use it. If George ford is worth 750k a year. Bid 1m and have him knocking on the RFU/clubs door asking for more. Even if he stays with them and with their international game stays for 900k we have cost them 150k a year to keep a player they already had. And we can do the same thing in a years time and go to 1.1m. And Force his wages up again. And a year later. We aren't trying to beat them. Just to create a salary inflation bubble them. If we can't make them pay for taking our players we can try and make them pay to keep theirs.

But for that you need clubs who have the available space on their cap or the offer won't be taken seriously, all it would take is one of the RFU clubs to call our bluff and say "go on then, sign for them...", then if the RL club can't do it, we're the ones who look stupid

I've just had a quick look at the operational rules and there are a couple of ways I can see it working to prevent a player being able to re-register with the RFL after leaving to union;

The RFL can refuse registration if they consider the registration would negatively affect the reputation of the game (C:1:2:1:b:e)

The RFL can refuse registration if the player is subject to any suspension in any professional body (C:1:2:1:h), if the RFL were to give every player a 5 match ban for switching to any other sport then they would be unable to fulfill the terms of their ban so would be unable to be registered on their return

Why wouldn't we allow them to do it?

We would only need to do it a few times to have an inflationary effect. It won't be very long before clever agents of players we haven't even bid for are ringing RU he'd coaches about their RL value being higher than their RU one.

What's the worst case scenario here. We sign a good, high profile rugby player.