BY JOHN DAVIDSON
THERE are few more polarizing topics in rugby league right now than the Toronto Wolfpack.
The Canadian outfit, which joined the RFL’s League 1 in 2017, seem to excite and anger the rugby league fanbase almost in equal measure. Toronto have copped the brunt of a lot of unfair vitriol, incorrect accusations of RFL bias, jealousy – you name it – since they were founded.
Such is the toxic nature of the topic that most people are seen to be in one of two camps. You are either a ‘flat capper’/thick northerner who hates the Wolfpack and expansion, and wants them gone.
Or you are Toronto ultra-enthusiast who loves everything they do and often see them as the panacea of the sport’s ills, the saviors of rugby league.
Toronto are the 13-man’s code answer to Brexit.
As with most complicated issues, it is not black or white. Neither are Toronto.
In the past I have been accused of writing negative articles about the club. In truth I have written pieces, and created other content such as podcasts and videos, that has both praised and criticised Toronto at different times when deserved.
What I have sought to do is provide balance and be fair, not give them blanket coverage that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread, frankly, because they are not. No club is.
Let me be clear – the Wolfpack have done a lot of good things in the past two and a half years, and continue to do so.
They have spread the sport to North America, converted new fans and marketed the game well. They have attracted a lot of positive publicity and new sponsors to rugby league. They have stirred things up and created excitement.
They should be applauded for that.
But like any other club in rugby league, the same as Leeds or Wigan or Sheffield or Coventry or Parramatta, they deserve equal scrutiny for what they have done wrong, for where they have erred, as much as they do praise for their successes. They are not perfect, or infallible, as much as some cheerleading members of the media like to portray.
The narrative around the Wolfpack has become quite warped and distorted.
Two years and four months after they played their first competitive league match against London Skolars, huge questions remain around Toronto, their sustainability, their operations and some of their business practices.
As I revealed in League Weekly newspaper on Sunday night (June 9), the Wolfpack are embroiled in a worrying visa problem that could really blow up in their face. Many of Toronto’s Australian players are in the UK on tourist visas, not work permits.
These Australians are not allowed to live in the UK under the conditions of the tourist visa, but are in fact doing so illegally with their partners and children.
Following the incident where Darcy Lussick was not allowed back into the UK, after visiting Europe, there is danger that other Australian Wolfpack players could face the same fate.
Officially the club is denying that is the case, but the reality is far different. There is even speculation that the Home Office may investigate the club.
This could have a huge impact on Toronto’s promotion push this season. It could even end up costing them a place in Super League, if those Aussies are banned from coming into England to play games at the business end of the campaign.
As sources told me, the club’s UK management team of Martin Vickers (Business development officer) and Brian Noble (Director of rugby) has been aware of this problem for some time but have allegedly ignored it. They have hoped it would go away, it would not hit the headlines or impact the team. But now it has.
Last week former Toronto player Reni Maitua tweeted: “Three years they’ve had to sort this out with immigration!! What a joke. Good luck signing overseas players in the future…
“You think overseas players will move to the other side of the world, some with families to risk being deported for not having a visa!? I loved my short time with the club but it’s management is poor #Facts.”
This visa issue is another example of poor management and leadership from the club that has bubbled away under the surface for some time. This includes the late paying and non-paying of bill after bill, money owed to suppliers, other clubs and even its own players.
At the start of 2019 Toronto faced a winding up order in the UK after it failed to pay the law firm Brandsmiths that represented its player Ryan Bailey in anti-doping case.
In February this year Salford Red Devils launched legal action against the Wolfpack to recoup the transfer fee for fullback Gareth O’Brien. Roughly £20,000 was owed to Salford, but 11 months after O’Brien left the Red Devils to join Toronto, the Super League side still did not have its money. Eventually Salford got the cash.
There is a longstanding pattern here.
In December 2018 the Wolfpack suffered salary delays when players and staff were paid late. The club claimed it was a ‘short-term’ problem and on January 6 announced new investment of $10 million Canadian (£5.83 million) for 2019.
“In prioritising the long-term, we unfortunately caused some short-term pain,” Toronto owner David Argyle told the BBC at the time.
“Our December payroll for players was delayed. We are obviously not happy that we fell short of the values and standards we hold ourselves to as an organisation.”
Last year Wakefield Trinity had to chase Toronto for the transfer fee of winger Mason Caton-Brown when he signed for the club in August. Trinity owner Michael Carter eventually went public on social media in his bid to receive the fee when the debt was two weeks overdue.
He succeeded in getting the money.
Warrington Wolves have also faced the same problem when it comes to the Canadian outfit. In October 2017 their forward Joe Westerman signed for Toronto. But it took the Wolfpack a long time, believed to be over a year, to finally pay Warrington the fee for Westerman.
Just last week I was informed that Toronto still owe Sheffield Eagles $1500 for their $3000 bus trip from Sheffield to Edinburgh Airport last year, for their trip to Canada to play the Wolfpack. That match took place on July 7, 2018.
And on Sunday fellow RLLR contributor Ross Heppenstall revealed that Argyle had not yet paid League 1 side London Skolars for the 20% ownership stake, worth around £100,000 that he bought that was formally announced before Christmas last year. Skolars owner Hector McNeil told Ross in League Weekly he was confident he would receive the cash “by the business end of the season”.
What does this all mean?
Well you can make your own conclusions. But the pattern of mismanagement and bad business practice is pretty damning. These kinds of occurrences only seek to harm the brand and perception of the club. It makes Toronto look amateur.
No wonder many clubs in Super League don’t want the Wolfpack in the competition whether they are run so poorly and can’t, or won’t, pay their bills on time.
You put all these things together and it undeniably paints a poor wider picture of the club. In my eyes, the visa issue is the bigger concern. The fact that Toronto have tried to keep this under the carpet, and hope they are not sprung by customs, is worrying.
The problem is that the Wolfpack have been operating as an England club that plays some games in Canada. It needs to become a Canadian club that plays some games in England.
At the moment it is based in Manchester and spends most of its time in the UK. Hence its overseas players need the appropriate visas to live in the UK, and as they are not sponsored by the RFL, they cannot get those visas.
It is a separate debate (and a worthwhile one) on whether the RFL should or should not sponsor Toronto’s Australian players to get work permits like it does with St Helens, Huddersfield, Featherstone and the like. That is something for another time.
The reality is that these players can play for Toronto in the UK, but not stay in the UK for longer than a six-month period or essentially ‘live’ in the country permanently. They are visitors.
An RFL spokesperson told me: “When Toronto joined the RFL competitions, the Border Agency confirmed that overseas players could enter as visitors to play in the UK; however, clearly the club and players are responsible for ensuring that they comply with the specific rules around those visas.
“In relation to this, the personal circumstances of individual players are clearly not matters within the control or knowledge of the RFL. The RFL remains in positive dialogue with the Border Agency who have reiterated the above position remains correct.”
The visa scandal and Lussick’s blocked re-entry came just days before the news of a racist comment made by Argyle to Swinton forward Jose Kenga. The fallout from that incident has seen Argyle dramatically fire himself as chairman and CEO of Toronto.
It has been the week from hell for the Wolfpack.
But this mess, and the ones listed above, is of their own creation. There can be little sympathy for the club.
Toronto clearly needs to get its own house in order. As legendary coach Jack Gibson once said: “Winning starts in the front office”. A shake-up of personnel is required.
The Wolfpack are an ambitious, confident and bullish franchise with big plans and big goals. They want to shake up the status quo. More power to them on that front.
But they shouldn’t receive special treatment by the media, the RFL or anyone just because of what they represent, or what they might eventually bring in (for example, a TV broadcasting deal).
If you can take away all the spin and the hype, the future of Toronto is quite complex and not so straightforward. How they go forward will be telling not only for themselves, but also for the likes of Ottawa and New York who want to follow in their footsteps.
