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: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:42 pm

Alexs Dad wrote:

Starbug, read your comment on VT, did I understand this bit correctly?

The UKBA changed the visa rules a year before CC were born but they still used them anyway?

This would give an idea of the ' timeline '

Grendel wrote: Bighead, I refer you to my post again where I have stated that the working holiday visas in 2006-7 were used by 13 clubs OUTSIDE of Superleague.

Superleague players have sporting visas.

So it would be those clubs OUTSIDE of Superleague over those years who would use them. For instance maybe, Wigan, Halifax, Leigh, Salford, Feathersone.

I sincerely hope not though, because then all those fans who've been berating us for being cheats would be cheats themselves!

And that would be just TERRIBLE. They would have to be punished and thrown out of their leagues and all the other things they wished on us.

Selective reading on your part

Craig Spence also stated

Between 2003-2005 players had been allowed to play sport fpr semi pro clubs with ' working holiday ' visa's

The system changed in 2005

The UKBA gave a concession in 2005 to allow players who were on thses visa'a to complete their contracts [ Similar to W1g4ns argument when the SC was introduced ]

One club [ thought to be Gateshead ] challenged the decision arguing that they should be allowed genuinely amatuer players on the ' working holiday ' visa [ The genuinley amatuer is the relevant part here ]

From that point the RFL adopted a policy whereby it agreed to register some players while not encouraging it [ RFL and some being the relevant part of this quote ]

So basically in 2003 a loophole was used by several clubs

In 2005 this loophole was discovered and stopped but a few players were allowed to finish their agreed time at the relevant clubs

Gateshead still wanted to play amateur players in a pro comp and so were allowed

Along come Celtic Crusaders in 2005 and they need to be competitive to get into NL 1 in time to submit a SL application

Somebody suggests that the easiest way to do this would be to get a load of Aussies over

But you'll not get a player visa because you would break the NL2 salary cap of 150 K

So somebody suggests using the ' Working holiday ' visa because these australian players will come over and play for free and as this has to be agreed by the RFL then the UKBA will not be any the wiser

2008 and the UKBA put a total stop to this practise [ probably because of it being abused ] which results in 6 Celtic players having to get ' proper ' playing visa's

6 months later somebody at the UKBA notices that these 6 players have already been playing over here for 2 years and it is highly unlikely they were doing it for nothing , especially as one of them could have easily got a place in a SL club earning 100K a year plus

So which organisation used it's discretion to decide who could and who couldn't use this loophole between 2006-2008 ?

RFL