Rugby Australia and NSW Rugby Union have shared their intention to terminate Israel Folau‘s contract after he shared a homophobic post on Instagram.
Folau’s recent post comes a year after the Wallabies player and devout Christian left a series of anti-gay comments on the social media platform.
Rugby Australia Chief Executive Raelene Castle and NSW Rugby Union CEO Andrew Hore issued a statement revealing they had made “repeated attempts to contact Israel” since Wednesday evening. However, Folau has failed to communicate directly with either group.
“Whilst Israel is entitled to his religious beliefs, the way in which he has expressed these beliefs is inconsistent with the values of the sport. We want to make it clear that he does not speak for the game with his recent social media posts.
“Israel has failed to understand that the expectation of him as a Rugby Australia and NSW Waratahs employee is that he cannot share material on social media that condemns, vilifies or discriminates against people on the basis of their sexuality.
“Rugby is a sport that continuously works to unite people. We want everyone to feel safe and welcome in our game and no vilification based on race, gender, religion or sexuality is acceptable and no language that isolates, divides or insults people based on any of those factors can be tolerated.
“As a code we have made it clear to Israel formally and repeatedly that any social media posts or commentary that is in any way disrespectful to people because of their sexuality will result in disciplinary action.
“In the absence of compelling mitigating factors, it is our intention to terminate his contract.”
BREAKING NEWS – Rugby Australia to terminate Israel Folau’s contract. For the latest tune into @FOXSportsNews . pic.twitter.com/31HMAQK3Pj
— Alissa Smith (@AlissaSmithTV) April 11, 2019
