Bird will have to wait before starting his Super League career
Bradford Bulls have revealed their Australian signing Greg Bird has been refused an entry clearance visa.
The 24-year-old stand-off has been charged over an alleged assault on his girlfriend and faces a trial in Australia on 27 April.
"Bradford will support Greg throughout this period with a view of him joining them as soon as he has cleared his name," said a club statement.
Bird was due to link up with the Bulls this month after Cronulla released him.
The Bulls statement added: "Rather than fight this decision through the appeals process, Greg has decided to have his day in court and prove his innocence before reapplying."
Bird, who has two caps for the Kangaroos, has signed a one-year contract for 2009 with an option for a further two years.
His career in Australia has suffered since he was arrested for allegedly attacking his American girlfriend in August last year.
The player, who has maintained his innocence, is due in court on charges of reckless wounding and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
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taken from BBC website.
It is a good job we did not get him. The trail is at the end of April which means his visa will take a month. He will only be here in June. He won't have played for a good 8 months by then and it will take him a while to get match fit. that mean he will be fully playing in AUG'10. Ok it may not take him that long but 2 months to settle in is about right. Bradford fans must be gutted.
At first i was a bit miffed we didnt sign the guy. Now it looks a bit like a blessing in disguise. We really would be in the poo now if we had signed him and this happened
It's a pity that all these restrictions on visas only seem to apply to Rugby League players. What about all the wendyball players who are from foreign shores who have much more serious criminal offences against ther name. The latest being the Latics player who has just been charged eith serious sexual assault and then there's Carlos Tevez who has had his vehicle impounded after being caught driving without a valid UK licence. Surely this would invalidate his insurance. No doubt he'll just pay a poxy fine and get his car back then someone will somehow manage to get him a UK licence without him even taking a test, quite frankly it's all really annoying.
I'm all for not letting anyone into the country who has got a criminal record or is currently under investigation, but it really does seem like a rule for one and one for another.
