Well said, it's a fashionable one to be outraged over at the moment but as they say it's only words.

Frankly, if anyone can get truly outraged by the crackpot notions of a fairly dim RL player they need to look at themselves.

Personally I wouldn't sign him purely for business reasons because, he's past his best, the bad publicity outdoes the good, he's expensive and he isn't French. What he actually thinks is his concern and as this is a free society he is allowed to express it.

What really makes me laugh though is that the easily outraged seem to forget the law when it suits them. Mr Falou has committed no crime, any attempt to refuse him a job due to his opinions would in fact be discrimination in the eyes of the law. If the RFL tried to block Catalan, they/he could take them to Court and would win outright.

People need to be tolerant of the views of others, ie be the exact opposite of Falou.

Best way to think of this is imagine if he changed the target of his opinions and ask yourself if it would be okay?

What if he said that all black people will burn in hell? Or disabled people?

It's no different for gay people. Hiding behind outdated religious nonsense isn't really an excuse. Your religion is yours. Your religious beliefs apply to you. You cannot impose beliefs on others, or at least you shouldn't.

Pretty low spot for the sport, tbh.

Is it really snowflake when someone is saying he believes people should burn in hell because they are attracted to the 'wrong' sex. If he was saying he believed in the Islamic state and all westerners should burn would he be ok as long as he had a good hand off and did the 100m in 10.5 seconds

Being anti bigotry isn't fashionable.

Dave Woods

It's's fair to say that the whole game is appalled by Catalans' decision to sign Israel Folau but they are legally constrained by what they can do.

Rugby Australia sacked him but had to come to an expensive settlement following a court case.

The Australian National Rugby League declared that he would not be welcome in their game but as they didn't ban him that has left the RFL unable to prevent his registration here.

But it's fair to say he will not be welcome at any domestic Super League grounds.

Wigan's immediate reaction to declare that their home game against Catalans will now be a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community is a reflection of the sentiments of every other Super League club.

It's rare to see such a united front from both the Super League and RFL in their condemnation of this signing.

They really will sign anyone wont they

Quality signing for Catalans

Que the faux outrage from the sjw facists

It's interesting that, if any supporter expresses anything close to his views inside a RL ground they would be ejected and banned and yet Catalan (again) just aren't bothered.
As for players who have done worse, they too shouldn't be in our sport.

IIRC Cas were fined and some of their fans banned for homophobic abuse but, even they weren't suggesting people should "burn in hell".

Interesting double standards

Just read that if Izzy expresses any of his anti gay views publicly his contract will be terminated immediately.

Think what the RFL/SL means is he hasn't been found guilty in a court of law yet.

Just seen Bernard Guasch comments which are quite fair in which he says:

"We do not believe that those views should be publicly expressed, especially by a high-profile sports person. "We have a signed agreement with the RFL (Rugby Football League). Any transgression will trigger an immediate termination of Israel's contract and a substantial fine for the club."

Which is fair in my eyes. As long as he keeps his mouth shut in regard to his previous comments.

The bloke said the bush fires in Australia are god's punishment for their same sex marriage and abortion laws. This was after he'd already been sacked off by the ARU.
He's a religious crank - Imagine if he was a muslim saying all this the gammons wouldn't be talking about freedom of speech then. I'll be amazed if he makes it to the end of his contract without coming out with some other rubbish that brings the game intro disrepute.

As for Elstone, what is the point of him?

That is no different to a club ejecting violent fans but would happily sign a player with violent criminal history.

For me it is. Even before you get into the mind field of believing in hell, I honestly couldn't care less.

Worth also pointing out that he also said hell awaits drunks, adulterers, liars, atheists and a few others too. Now I'm actually a few of them myself and still I couldn't care less. Doesn't mean I won't be entertained by his rugby talent tho.

Would it be ok to have sexist or racist views as well ??
And what is some kid decides that he's such a star that they also believe that his anti gay views are also a great path to follow.

This isn't great for RL in the UK, a sport who has a have regularly taken Aussie "bad boys" under their wing.
I wonder whether any of Catalan sponsors feel the same, especially Sud de France tourist board. How very welcoming.

Same old same old, everybody is up in arms because we need to be ‘inclusive’, but only to those who hold the same views as them.

I don’t agree with his comments, I have my own personal views on him as an individual (and anyone else who can follow religion to the extremes), but you can’t exclude someone due to their religious beliefs - that’s not ‘inclusive’.

Putting it on social media is wrong, and there needs to be sanctions outlined for if he does that (which it appears there are), but what he’s done isn’t a hate crime, he wasn’t punished legally, and his victory over the ARU shows that if push comes to shove, excluding him from the sport would be illegal. Now most clubs you’d like to think would look at him and think ‘yeah, he’s potentially a great player (though probably not now at his age and having been in Union so long), but actually, our clubs culture and belief systems are so different to his, that his talents aren’t worth compromising our standards for’... Catalan clearly don’t have that self-worth, which can also be seen in their approach to professionalism elsewhere (see Kenny Edwards recent comments)

The best response is to do exactly what Wigan have done - show that whilst he may hold ridiculous and bigoted views, the rest of us are well and truly on the opposite side of the argument to him.

Live and let live folks - just shake your head at him, and the Catalan club.