Some of Israel Folau's former teammates have added their voices to the growing chorus of disapproval over the banned Wallabies star's controversial GoFundMe plea.
On Thursday, Folau launched a page on the popular crowd-funding website in a bid to cover legal costs for his upcoming courtroom battle with Rugby Australia - a move that has been widely condemned as unethical and morally questionable.
In two days, Folau has already raised AU$504,000 (NZ$530,000) of his AU$3m (NZ$3.15m) target from the public, despite owning a multi-million dollar property portfolio.
- Donations flood in for Folau's GoFundMe page
- Folau seeks help to raise money in fight against Rugby Australia
Former Waratahs teammate Stephen Hoiles labelled Folau's public pledge "sickening", when contrasted with what he calls much worthier causes on the website, which is often the domain for struggling families to fundraise for medical costs.
"Trying to raise $3 million of other people’s money in this day and age is absolute madness," Holies told Fox Sports.
"When you see, in comparison, the little kids on the exact same page that are fighting for their life, I'm sickened by it."
One of the most highly prized players in firstly the NRL and then international rugby, Folau has demanded some of the highest contract rates across both codes. He owns an estimated $7 million in property alone and had a string of big-paying endorsement deals.
"He's fighting a breach of his own contract, so people are donating money to what they think is a wonderful case of freedom of speech in Australia, but you’re not fighting that," Holies continued.
"You're paying money to a guy that’s made a million bucks a year for probably the last 10-12 years. He doesn't need anyone’s money."
Former Wallabies backline cohort Drew Mitchell endorsed Hoile's perspective and slammed Folau for his public deception.
"He's well off," Mitchell said on Fox Sports. "Let's be honest, he's got plenty of assets and things like that, and if he really believed in what he was doing, he could sell off and go fund it himself.
"As opposed to some of our viewers at home, he’s asking them to go and spend their hard-earned on a fight that he’s chosen to be in.
"There's plenty of other causes on that GoFundMe page, where there are kids and people that are ill who didn’t choose to be in that fight, but they're in it."
He was even more scathing in his assessment of Folau on social media.
YOU are in a fight that YOU chose to be in after YOU broke the terms of YOUR contract," Mitchell tweeted. "The kids below are in a fight they NEVER wanted to be in & yet YOU think YOU deserve donations more than they do??!!
"It's no longer about religion, it's about YOU and YOUR greed."
Also under fire is a clause lost in the small-print of the GoFundMe page that says the donations are a "gift" and Folau doesn't have to "apply the funds in any particular way with respect to his legal action".
One barrister told the Sydney Morning Herald that the $3 million he set far exceeds the usual expectations for such a legal bill and called the goal "outrageous".
With no obligation to refund any excess donations, those funds may well end up in Folau's personal pocket.
More than 5000 individuals have donated to Folau, who says he is more than $100,000 out of pocket, after already appearing before an independent panel at a Rugby Australia code-of-conduct hearing last month.
He was issued a high-level breach of RA's professional players' code of conduct for his anti-gay posts on social media.
Newshub.
