Disgraced rugby player Israel Folau has officially filed a $10 million lawsuit against Rugby Australia after the organization fired him earlier this year for spewing off all sorts of homophobic nonsense on social media.
In the lawsuit, Folau, who had been one of Australia’s highest-paid athletes before his epic fall from grace, argues that his contract was unlawfully terminated due to his Christian beliefs.
Related: Australia has kicked Israel Folau out of professional rugby for his repeated anti-gay comments
But Australian rugby officials maintain that Folau breached a players’ code of conduct by violating its code on “respectful use of social media.” According to the code, players must “treat everyone equally, fairly and with dignity regardless of gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, cultural or religious background, age or disability.”
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Prior to having his contract terminated, Folau repeatedly used social media to say LGBTQ people were going to hell, bash trans people, rant about the White House being lit up in rainbow colors, and share videos of hateful sermons by homophobic preachers.
Related: Homophobic rugby player launches new fundraiser, blows past goal by raking in $1000 a minute
Folau crowdfunded $2 million with the help of the Australian Christian Lobby, a Christian extremist political lobbying group, to pay for his legal expenses. Now, he wants $10 million in compensation from Ruby Australia ($6 million more than the four-year contract he was released from) plus his job back.
Folau has said in the past that he would rather walk away from rugby than defy the Bible. Unless, evidently, there’s $10 million involved.
white-queer-african
So tedious and so tired of his story. As a rugby fanatic it boggles my mind why he was paid so much in the first place? Very average player. Bye, bye Sheila………
Vince
I’m not. It really illustrates what a fraud he and his followers are very well.
WashDrySpin
pray to your God for the money and your job…see how that works out for you
Vince
A multi millionaire using go fund me for a defense that he could well afford himself. Then they found out he was using it to promote hate and dropped him. I’ll bet he just pocketed that 2 million though. Mansions and 600K cars don’t pay for themselves after all.
henare
Nope. When GFM kills your campaign you don’t get the cash. But it’s not like he doesn’t already have tens of millions of his own.
The real question is “why do people keep giving this asshole any air at all?”
Brian
He found another site to crowdfund, so he did get the money.
john.k
I don’t know whether he is a multi-millionaire or not but professional rugby players do not get the sort of salaries that soccer players and American football players get. The top rugby players get annual salaries similar to what top soccer players get per week. Of course the better known ones also get money for endorsements and advertising but in that regard I’d imagine Israel’s brand is somewhat tarnished.
Vince
john.k
You ever hear of this thing called google? You can actually use it you know?
Yeah, he’s just a tad tarnished and they’re just giving a time out to vent. Lol
Cam
Isn’t it funny how these right wing capitalists who worship corporate executives as Gods suddenly scream that businesses can’t make policies to protect their market share.
Oh, and a sidenote, remember, he was raised Mormon and now is evangellical so none of this is a surprise.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Special place in the darkest corner of Hell for smcubags like this vile abhorrent noxious disturbing looking smcubag
white-queer-african
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS, WOW WOW, I so love your comment. Encapsulate exactly my sentiments too.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
WQA: Thanks :-p
Chrisk
Yep. He’s bent on hate and revenge while making other peoples lives miserable. Ugly mofo that I f*cking wish the worst for.
theafricanwiththemouth
Nothing but the worst!
skeldare
Why would anyone want to work with this guy?
Godabed
He has several of those “Christian” values down. Greed, Wraith, Pride, Sloth, Envy. Two more buddy and you will have the entire set for a first class ticket straight to hell.
Aires the Ram
Perhaps he protests a bit too much?
GymMan456
Christian?
What Christians does have really bible backup for homophobia?
Jesus came up with his new law of Love, and thereby dismissed all of the former stuff which would work contrary to it. This have not been taken much seriously, but it is clear to read – if you just care to do so.
This Israel is not going back on any of his homophobic statements but do want to us to regard it as part of his Holy creed. To do so, he must deny Jesus and and strictly be adhering to the Old testament and its genocidal spirit. He should define himself as a Torahite or is it Torashite?
MikeGinMN
It sounds to me like he doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on. He signed the contract… he violated the contract… he was warned… he continued to violate the contract… he was terminated.
Done. End of story.
Maybe there is a ultra conservative evangelical christian rugby league that he can sign with that pays… ROTFL.