Quote: Gotcha "So it is quite open to interpretation. Nowhere does it say they are released from their Rhinos contracts, but then again nowhere does it actually say these are loan signings. Hence how did the RFL treat these deals.
Surely though the fact that some of these players have actually been doing community work with the Rhinos since that deal was announced, would say they are contracted to the Rhinos and remunerated from them?'"
This should have been stamped out 2 years ago when Swinton and Warrington were doing the same thing, but as Swinton weren't a threat to the top Championship clubs the RFL did nothing. The players who had supposedly signed for Swinton (all 8 of them) were still training with Warrington and in the case of one player Warrington sent him off on loan to London which was strange seeing as he was meant to be a contracted Swinton player !
In this particular case of the Leeds/Fev agreement, it is clear that there is manipulation of the rules happening although whether that amounts to a breach of the rules is another argument altogether. For example, in the announcement about the players joining Fev on the Leeds website it quotes Andy Hay as being grateful to Gary H for allowing the players to join Fev. But, if they had genuinely been released by Leeds and were no longer under their control then they'd be able to sign for whoever they liked as free agents and wouldn't require Gary H to
[iallow[/i anything. He'd have no say whatsoever in the matter.
