Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Spain have filed a formal complaint following the RWC qualifying controversy from Sunday. Los Leones played away to Belgium and were beaten 18-10. Belgium’s victory saw Romania qualifying for RWC 2019.
The result of the match was influenced by outside factors. Outside, meaning more than the performance of the two teams on the field during the 80 minutes. In what was a dark day for rugby, the Rugby World Cup and the sport itself was brought into disrepute. World Rugby announced on Monday that it is to investigate the ‘context of events’.
The Federación Española de Rugby (FER – Spanish Rugby Federation) made the following statement:
The Federación Española de Rugby has presented on this Tuesday a formal complaint against World Rugby and Rugby Europe about the events which took place during the Belgium vs Spain fixture last Sunday, March 18. The claim is based on the following arguments.
In the first instance there has been a violation of the principle of impartiality that must prevail in any sporting activity. The fact that the referee was Romanian carrying interests in common with the Romanian Rugby Union (FRR) in the outcome of the match, breaches the required impartiality as there is a conflict of interests that has not been respected.
In fact the FER had requested 20 days before the celebration of the match, once the interests of Romania were affected by the result of this game, the changing of the three officials. The request was denied by Rugby Europe. In maintaining the appointment of the three referees the guarantee of a transparent competition was broken, leading to conflicts of interest, a circumstance which should be avoided in any sporting activity. The fact that the three referees belonged to the FRR, some of them with positions of responsibility in the same entity, motivated the distrust of their impartiality. This simple suspicion ought to have been sufficient to assess the request of the Spanish Rugby Federation.
The law does not demand certainty, but fear of partiality, and in the present case that is how it was produced. In fact this past Saturday an assistant referee from the England vs Ireland match was substituted for motives of less apparent partiality than those of the match in question.
In the second instance there was a breach of the code of conduct as established by World Rugby, under Regulation 20, Appendix 1.7. It establishes that all Unions, Associations, Rugby Bodies, Clubs and Persons shall not engage in any conduct or any activity on or off the field that may impair public confidence in the honest and orderly conduct of a match. In the case we are dealing with, there were circumstances that did not guarantee this trust.
In addition, Regulation 18 6.1B of World Rugby allows that, if there has been a breach of the statutes and / or regulations, there is the possibility of canceling the result of a match and / or the repetition of a match.
As evidence that the suspicion of alleged bias has occurred, the FER has contributed a video in which 19 referee actions collected from the course of the game clearly prove that the interests of Spain during the encounter were harmed.
The FER trusts that World Rugby will allow for the repetition of the game since the image of rugby is being damaged by what happened in this match.
