Silver Ferns star Maria Folau has been feeling the heat for reposting husband Israel Folau’s GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his legal fight against Rugby Australia. Folau made the post on Instagram on Saturday.
However Netball Australia and the Super Netball league said no action would be taken in a joint statement released on Sunday. Maria plays for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the Australian Super Netball competition, and the team and Netball South released a joint statement by CEO Bronwyn Klei that said:
“First and foremost, I want to be very clear that Netball South Australia is fiercely determined to provide an inclusive environment that allows anyone to participate in the great game of netball regardless of gender, religious belief, age, race or sexual orientation.
We also believe in fairness and perspective.
Like millions of other people across Australia, Maria Folau uses her personal social media platform to share her life and beliefs with her family, friends and fans. This week, she shared her husband’s controversial Go-Fund-Me post.
While Netball SA in no way endorses the reposting, we do not believe Maria has contravened our social media policy.”
The statement drew the ire of netball legend Liz Ellis, who tweeted:
“Yeah nah not good enough.
How about this:
There is no room for homophobia in our game. Anyone who is seen to support or endorse homophobia is not welcome. As much as I love watching @MariaFolau play netball I do not want my sport endorsing the views of her husband.”
The statement also provoked a strong reaction among other social media users, with responses to the Thunderbirds’ press release almost entirely negative.
It comes after the sacking of Israel Folau last month by Rugby Australia for repeatedly making homophobic comments on social media. It led to the former cross code star deciding to appeal the decision, contrary to his earlier claims that he would walk away from the game if he was found to be in breach of his contract. An appeal last week to apparently help pay his legal fees has raised around AUD $200,000 of a $3 million goal, although fine print in the donation page says that the money can be used for any purpose and Folau is under no obligation to repay any of it.