The protracted contract saga between the Lions and Sharks, over the services of Willem Alberts and Louis Ludik has ended in another costly loss for the Golden Lions Rugby Union.
Read comment 4 below, by TonyM
from rugby365.com
We can reveal that the court on Friday ruled in favour of the Sharks and declared the contracts between the GLRU and the two players null and void.
The GLRU have already signed the release forms and Alberts will feature on the Sharks bench when they start their 2010 Super 14 campaign against the Chiefs in Durban on Saturday.
It leaves the Lions three-and-one in recent legal battles over the services of players – having lost World Cup-winning Springbok Jaque Fourie to the Stormers, Alberts and Ludik to the Sharks – with their only victory scrumhalf JP Joubert, who won his arbitration cases against the Cheetahs.
Friday’s court hearing hinged on three points:
1. Whether the matter was one of urgency…
2. Whether the court had the jurisdiction to hear the case…
3. The validity of the contracts between the Lions and the players…
On all three counts the GLRU lost.
The court determined that it was indeed a matter of urgency, as Alberts was already in the Sharks team for Saturday. Ludik is still sidelined with an injury.
It also determined that it was within the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case.
And it also ruled against the GLRU, who insisted that the ‘shortcomings’ in their contracts with the two players should be resolved in an arbitration hearing. The court determined that shortcomings in a contract can only go to arbitration when both parties are willing to accept that step. In this case the players were no longer interested in contracts with the Lions and arbitration was no longer an issue.
With the court having ruled against them, the GLRU officials signed the two players’ release forms at the court – with both Alberts and Ludik now officially Sharks.
Loser Janne
again it shows how poorly the lions are managed
like tonym said theegg will fill reyneke’s face , and so it came to be
to all the bulls suporters congrats on your teams win, infact they were brilliant
what a great game of rugby ^5 guys enjoy , sorry cheetah fella’s you tried hard and there is a lot of fight in this cheetahs team good to see
This has cost the Lions R500,000 for some absolute pig headedness that could have been done away with had 2 sheets of player release forms been signed in Dec.
Now this will further disrupt the team tomorrow as these 2 guys are their mates.
This is the real story off SAPA – you decide who you would have run your Union……………………………..
Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis ruled on Friday that the Lions’ contracts with Willem Alberts and Louis Ludik were not valid, leaving the players free to play for the Sharks.
The Sharks had brought an urgent application after an SA Rugby Union hearing into the dispute over the players on Thursday came to no resolution.
Sharks advocate Jeremy Gauntlett said the matter had been deemed urgent because the Super 14 tournament would start on Saturday and both players were important to the Sharks’ game plan.
Lions chief executive officer Manie Reyneke had refused to release the clearance certificates that would allow Alberts and Ludik to play for the Sharks.
Alberts, who is an eighth man, and Ludik, a fullback, signed contracts with the Lions on November 1, 2008. These were to expire at the end of 2011.
The contracts stated that after the first year the players would have the option to accept offers from other unions, but that the Lions would have the first option to match those offers.
The contract also stated that the players’ salaries would be reviewed “after the 2009 and Currie Cup season”.
This review had not been done, said Gauntlett.
At the end of the 2009 season the two players signed new contracts with the Sharks.
Lions advocate Theo Beckerling told Davis the union had wanted a chance to rectify the contract.
“You want the court to come to your assistance because someone couldn’t set a proper contract?” Davis asked Beckerling.
“The document is vague and better contracts have been produced in South African legal history.”
He said it would be unfair to deny Alberts and Ludik the opportunity to play, which was their livelihood.
“The Lions are depriving them of playing rugby because they do not want to play for them anymore,” he said.
The Sharks play the Chiefs in Durban and the Lions play the Stormers in Johannesburg on Saturday in their first matches of the Super 14. – Sapa
Dik swak by the Lions. Get a better lawyer!
on we talk rugby there isnt much being said regarding this stuff up by the union 😆
Amateur management in a professional sport.
That goes for both the Lions and SARU.
That is why unions like the Bulls and Sharks are our best performing franchises.
They understand how to run a professional sports BUSINESS!!
The Sharks were never going to lose this battle as BJ knows how to run a business.
It all starts and ends at the top of your management.
However we all know that the problem with most unions is the political dead wood that maquerades as management in a professional era, whereas they are simply keeping their arses in the butter, at the expense of the players, coaches and fans.
And of course the system is flawed in a perfect way that allows the above mentioned people to keep voting themselves back into power.
A perfect African dictatorship!!
The problem I now have is WTF are the Lions / GLRU going to do regarding the balance of those crap contracts still in force.
If you ask the question of any of the GLRU Exco’ you are treated as a fool and a traitor.
I wonder who the real fools are?
Mmmmmmm… is all I can say, really….
So I guess the vervent Lions supporters who said there were valid contracts…. are WRONGGGGGGGGGGGGG !
Glad this farking circus is now finished.
GBS
How can it be finished.
IMO The entire Exco’ of the GLRU should be made to stand on the red carpet and explain why they wasted all of the time, resources and money on this BS exercise.
Reyneke has been adamant all along that the contracts were not the same as JF’s, but it would seem that the man was lying, plain and simple.
If I blatently lied to my shareholders and they found out, my arse would be fired quicker that the fool can spell “valid contract”.
Reyneke only kept his job last year because he had a “valid employment contract”, I wonder if THAT CONTRACT will stand up in court.
Time for another revolution methinks.
“Let the revolution begin. Off with their heads”.
10@ Scrumdown – Yip, Manie and his cohorts should go…. Kevin de Klerk must now show some brass balls and some resolve…
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