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It's happened again... Spain mired in another ineligible player controversy
By Online Editors
Spain have landed themselves in yet another ineligible player controversy just two years after the last incident resulted in them being disqualified from the 2019 World Cup.
The selection of Mathieu Belie, Bastien Fuster and Fabien Grammatico for matches in 2018 cost the Spaniards their chance of appearing at the recent finals in the Far East.
And their latest Rugby Europe Championship has now become embroiled in further red tape following the selection of John Wessel Bell.
The South African played in their opening matches of the 2020 tournament against Russia and Georgia but his name was absent from the team sheet to play Romania last weekend.
The excuse initially offered was that he has suffered a stomach upset, but that fabrication didn’t last long.
(Continue reading below...)
The Rugby Pod round up all last weekend's Guinness Six Nations and Gallagher Premiership action
It since merged that the Spanish Federation (FER) were unable to provide the necessary supporting documents for the player, and supporters are alleged to be furious there is yet again a player eligibility row surrounding their national team.
A winger at the Valladolid club since 2016, it was thought that the South Africa has qualified for Spain under the three-year residency rule.
However, it emerged that he spent 68 days last season back in South Africa, marginally in excess of the qualification regulations threshold which stipulates that "except in exceptional circumstances, the player must be physically at least ten months in the country concerned during each year that is part of the period of residence".
It was Tuesday when the FER finally addressed the vagueness surrounding Wessel Bell, explaining it would turn to World Rugby to be sure that the player is eligible and that nothing wrong has occurred.
However, their admission only stirred up anger, especially given what happened in 2018. “There is a lack of competence and rigour," said one player to media about the latest controversy. “Even if John is finally declared eligible by World Rugby, what image do we send back?”
Spain are currently fourth on the table in what is often referred to at the Six Nations B championship, their opening round win over Russia followed by losses to Georgia and Romania.
A sanction from the tournament organisers would likely see them drop to the last place on the table and face relegation, not a promising outlook with qualification for the 2023 World Cup set to start next year.
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In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
Go to commentsBens got a crush on KLA. So cute.
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