More than half a million dollars has been raised for disgraced former Rugby Australia star Israel Folau.
On Thursday, Folau launched a page on the popular crowd-funding website GoFundMe 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.
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The page has already raised AU$566,759 of his AU$3 million goal. More than 7200 people have made donations.
The milestone came after the Australian Business Review on Friday reported that Folau has a AU$5.6 million (NZ$5.8 million) property portfolio with eight properties owned through Folau Investments Pty Ltd.
The outlet says he and his wife, netballer Maria Folau, live in a five-bedroom house in the exclusive Kenthurst suburb of Sydney. The other properties are located in Sydney and Brisbane.
Folau's former 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."
Folau was issued a high-level breach of RA's professional players' code of conduct for his anti-gay posts on social media.
His GoFundMe says he believes his contract termination was unlawful and he will be using the money for legal proceedings against Rugby Australia and Rugby NSW.
"My wife Maria and I have already spent over $100,000 of our own money, and that was just to try and deal with Rugby Australia’s internal tribunal processes. The money I am asking for is solely to fund the rest of my action in court."
Newshub.
