Auto and General Lions chief executive Manie Reyneke has issued a stern warning to the Sharks – play Willem Alberts and there will be consequences.
Sport24
Reyneke said that if Alberts, who was included in the Sharks squad for their pre-season friendly against the Force on Tuesday night, did take the field, he would lodge an official complaint.
It is the latest move in the tug of war between the two provinces, which started after Springbok midfielder Jaque Fourie won an arbitration battle last year to leave the Lions for the Vodacom Stormers.
Alberts and fellow Lion Louis Ludick both claimed they could move on the same principle as Fourie, prompting a tug of war over their services which seems to be heading to arbitration again.
“Its simple, if they play, we will lay a complaint,” Reyneke told Supersport.com. “ And the same goes for Louis – if he plays we will do exactly the same.”
“The situation is not the same as Jaque Fourie’s. Every contract is negotiated with the individual and has different clauses within to adapt to the needs of each player. The conditions under which both these contracts were signed are very different.
“For instance, Jaques’ contract was signed until 2010 and Willem Alberts is until 2011. Both cases are ironically with the same agent,” Reyneke added.
Reyneke said he would have liked to go to Labour Court to sort out the contractual dispute, but that the terms of the contract say that it needs to go to arbitration.
“We want to sort it out but players need to understand they need to honour the contracts they signed. There are a lot of ways to get out of a contract if you are really unhappy, but we want to find that out and sort the matter out.”
If a complaint is laid by the Lions at SA Rugby, Legal spokesman for the national body Christo Ferreira confirmed that it would be investigated.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
SARU and SARPA actually need to step in and follow the Shakespeare advice from Merchant of Venice
“First we kill all the lawyers”
Then sort it out around a table man to man….
The main thing is that it should be plain and clear that if a player is contracted to a union for a specific period he can only get out if his home club agrees and the receiving club offers money for the loss of the player in the remaining contract period….
January 25th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 6:10 pm:
This is not the right way of doing things, players have as much obligation to the unions as the unions have in paying them a shit load of money.
The Lions is doing the correct thing, those sardines need to pay if they want that players.
Useless SARFU needs know to step in and told the sardines off but Hoskins is maybe the reason why nothing has happen yet.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
No
Christo is nothing but a terrified tool
January 25th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 8:00 pm: O!
January 25th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Agree with both of you.
Two problems I have here, fuckin arrogant and money-chasing agents (and there are some good ones out there) and SA Rugby who cannot seem to grow a pair and take control.
The Lions have a right to protect their assets and deserve compensations.
Simnilarly, the Sharks are these players’ new homes, BUT, if they want them, they must compensate.
For the life of me I cannot think that 20 years into professionalism almost we haven’t sorted kak like this out.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
The main problem I see here (and I have no inside info) is that Manie is too damn stubborn to call up the players, invite them for a coffee, and just talk one-on-one.
On top of that, both Van Zyl from the Sharks and Manie/De Klerk from the Lions are too busy measuring their own dicks than to find a solution to the problem at hand.
Sit around a table, sort this kak out.
Damn children.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Reply to Morné @ 8:50 pm: Did they touch something sensitive here morne
January 25th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Reply to MornĂ© @ 8:50 pm: They’re hoping SARU steps in like the teacher when two standard fours are standing across from each other going “slaan jy eerste” and the other says “nee slaan jy eerste”
But in the meantime both hope a prefect or school teacher will stop either from having to slaan eerste…
As you said
Egos