A practical move or a rush forward. The agreement reached this Thursday by the Spanish Rugby Federation and Alcobendas has different readings depending on the prism with which it is viewed. In essence, the Madrid team waives its right to appeal the sanction of the National Sports Disciplinary Committee that relegates it to Division of Honor B, and in exchange the FER commutes the economic fine of 60,000 euros that was coupled with sports punishment.
In return, the Alcobendas undertakes to carry out “rugby promotion actions that will be established by the Board of Directors” and both parties will work together, “reciprocally and in good faith”, in the “mutual recovery of property, image and reputational damage” that the falsification of Gavin van den Berg’s passport and the exclusion of Spain from the next Men’s World Cup as a result of said falsification have caused. It has also been agreed that the Alcobendas sub-23 keep their place in the competition of that category.
“Both entities represented -both the Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) and Alcobendas Rugby (ARU)- by new directives unrelated to those events of the past, but which will undoubtedly condition their future, in the interest of rugby they consider that they must overcome said situation and advance in the growth of this sport, as well as in the recovery of its image and reputation at a national and international level”, It is alleged as the basis of this agreement in the statement issued by the Federation.
Thus, the battle ax between both sides is buried, faced when it comes to purging responsibilities for the modification of the roles of the South African pilier. However, the path of ordinary justice is maintained, in which it will be determined who was responsible, beyond those already known, that this documentation was sent to the FER in this way and passed the filter of the Eligibility Committee. For now there is no news in this regard since last August 9 the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office denounced Nacho Ardila, former president of Alcobendas, Tiki Inchausti and Fernando Díez, former coaches of the club’s first team, and Jano Cherr, former player now in the San French Juan de Luz, who has claimed that he was tricked into participating in the forgery and therefore did so unconsciously.
In the absence of seeing how the criminal case ends, the feeling remains that this new FER has not wanted to continue carrying an inherited backpack and has opted for the path that gave the current competitions more security, since a prosperous resource of Alcobendas would have turned the Division of Honor upside down. If the punishment dispensed to the team is exemplary, only time will tell. And whether it’s fair or not will depend on who you ask.