Kelvin's Ferret wrote:
The registration issue is irrelevant unless he decides to come back to RL later. Registration is relevant to the governing body/bodies of a given sport, not to a different sport. Best thing would be for Cas and DS to agree compensation terms (no doubt funded by Sale), otherwise it will be a legal route with the club petitioning breach of contract.
Not quite.
Both clubs, through the RFL and RFU, are affiliated to the Court if Arbitration for Sport (ironically acronymised to CAS). It is this affiliation that stops sporting clubs from different countries and sports stealing each other's contracted players. If Castleford lodge a complaint with CAS a they can instruct the RFU not to register Solomona and prevent him registering for any other affiliated club.
From the employment point of view, Castleford would need to prove at an employment tribunal that:
a) Solomona is in breach of contract; and
b) Castleford have suffered a financial loss.
The first part of this should be quite straightforward on many counts. He hasn't turned up for work as stated in his contract. He's also posted images of himself seemingly in another workplace.
The second part of this is more difficult. However, given that Castleford have received three offers for Solomona, this goes some way to showing the extent of the financial loss the club has suffered if these are presented as evidence to an ET.
Unfortunately for Solomona, if he is found to be in breach of contract and the ET makes a judgement on financial loss, Denny Solomona is personally responsible for compensating Castleford to this amount. He might even be liable for Castleford's legal costs. My gut feeling is that he hasn't thought this through far enough to understand the consequences he could suffer if Castleford are determined enough to go after him.
I also question how determined Sale will be in this case. He's already a gamble on the playing front and not an established RU player. Are they willing to pay the necessary legal fees to represent him defending an ET claim, the legal fees to have representation at the CAS and his salary, given the possibility they may be prevented from registering him? If that financial outlay really worth it for a winger who has never played their game? If I were in Sale's shoes, I'd be thinking about walking away from Solomona.
