[Salopbaggie]

I would have thought his only "legal" defence is to try and muddy the waters over what day the season starts, does it start when the first ball is kicked, or maybe if his defence team could find anything which means it starts a few day earlier, so they could argue it is actually before that first kick. For example how long does a new player have to be registered to play in that first game and could you therefore argue that the season starts then? (a bit weak that example but hopefully you will get what I mean)

It would be a really flimsy argument, but I do not see any other way around it, if the contract says "start of the season" then that is what it says and he would be liable. The only argument is "when is the start of the season"!