Carta abierta a World Rugby.
Publicado: Lun, 26 Mar 2018, 15:28
To the Chairman (Bill Beaumont); copy the ViceChairman (Agustin Pichot), Chief Executive (Brett Gosper), Coordinator (Tracy O´Callaghan) and the Head or Comms (Dominic Rumbles) of World Rugby.
Dear Sirs,
We write on behalf of 43k rugby followers from all nationalities who have signed the petition to replay the match Belgium-Spain (Mar 19th) for the WRC qualifiers through change.org. This petition follows the fragrant performance of official to the game, Vlad Iordachescu, who incurred in a manifest conflict given the dependency on this game for Romania´s direct qualification to the World Cup. In the course of the week, further news raised concerns that the value of integrity in rugby is at stake. As per the anti-corruption site of World Rugby: “Connected persons are not permitted to solicit, offer, induce, instruct, persuade, encourage and/or facilitate the giving and/or receiving of benefit in relation to a Rugby event improperly and/or in circumstances in which the connected person knows or should be expected to know may bring the person or the Game into disrepute or pose a threat to the integrity of the Game.”
The facts are the following:
(i) Officials were in manifest conflict of interest given their Romanian nationality and since 2 of them are reportedly employed by the Romanian Federation and should have declined to officiate the match. In particular, Vlad Iordachescu attended the World Cup 2007 as part of the Romanian team and has appeared in recently released footage as a fervent supporter of the Romanian U-20 team. During the match, referee ruled a penalty balance highly in favor of Belgium with 19 fragrant errors, being instrumental to the result of the match (18-10). Critical cases: (1) no advantage to SPA in a penalty against BEL after SPA makes a clean break (41’:30’’); (2) advantage to BEL in a penalty for 40’’ and 25 meter progress, to revert back after a knock-on (52’:28’’); (3) deliberate knock-on by BEL without yellow card (74’:45’’); (4) penalty to SPA for standing up after not being held (76’:50’’).
(ii) Rugby EUROPE whose chairman (Octavian Morariu ) is also a Romanian, denied the change of officials and the use of TMO requested by the Spanish federation prior to the match. Reportedly, Mr. Morariu also has interests in RWC TV rights for Rumania through a Maltese shell corporation which increases further his conflict of interest.
We are 43k petitioners worldwide. Many renowned rugby professionals support as well: Sir Clive Woodward, Lee Dickinson, Benjamin Fall, Nemani Nabolo, Antoine Battut, Jordi Murphy, Babtiste Serin, Jefferson Poirot, Marco Tauleigne, Nico Sanchez, Jacques Burger, Camille Gérondeau, Neemia Tialata.
We request that the match is replayed or equivalent treatment to restore Spain legitimate aspirations to qualify directly to the RWC 2019 and reestablish the image of Rugby as a sport of integrity and honor. We also plea for an investigation that elucidates actions from officials to the game and Europe Rugby and the relevant actions are taken. We also condemn the behavior of selected SPA players even attenuated by the context surrounding the match.
Dear Sirs,
We write on behalf of 43k rugby followers from all nationalities who have signed the petition to replay the match Belgium-Spain (Mar 19th) for the WRC qualifiers through change.org. This petition follows the fragrant performance of official to the game, Vlad Iordachescu, who incurred in a manifest conflict given the dependency on this game for Romania´s direct qualification to the World Cup. In the course of the week, further news raised concerns that the value of integrity in rugby is at stake. As per the anti-corruption site of World Rugby: “Connected persons are not permitted to solicit, offer, induce, instruct, persuade, encourage and/or facilitate the giving and/or receiving of benefit in relation to a Rugby event improperly and/or in circumstances in which the connected person knows or should be expected to know may bring the person or the Game into disrepute or pose a threat to the integrity of the Game.”
The facts are the following:
(i) Officials were in manifest conflict of interest given their Romanian nationality and since 2 of them are reportedly employed by the Romanian Federation and should have declined to officiate the match. In particular, Vlad Iordachescu attended the World Cup 2007 as part of the Romanian team and has appeared in recently released footage as a fervent supporter of the Romanian U-20 team. During the match, referee ruled a penalty balance highly in favor of Belgium with 19 fragrant errors, being instrumental to the result of the match (18-10). Critical cases: (1) no advantage to SPA in a penalty against BEL after SPA makes a clean break (41’:30’’); (2) advantage to BEL in a penalty for 40’’ and 25 meter progress, to revert back after a knock-on (52’:28’’); (3) deliberate knock-on by BEL without yellow card (74’:45’’); (4) penalty to SPA for standing up after not being held (76’:50’’).
(ii) Rugby EUROPE whose chairman (Octavian Morariu ) is also a Romanian, denied the change of officials and the use of TMO requested by the Spanish federation prior to the match. Reportedly, Mr. Morariu also has interests in RWC TV rights for Rumania through a Maltese shell corporation which increases further his conflict of interest.
We are 43k petitioners worldwide. Many renowned rugby professionals support as well: Sir Clive Woodward, Lee Dickinson, Benjamin Fall, Nemani Nabolo, Antoine Battut, Jordi Murphy, Babtiste Serin, Jefferson Poirot, Marco Tauleigne, Nico Sanchez, Jacques Burger, Camille Gérondeau, Neemia Tialata.
We request that the match is replayed or equivalent treatment to restore Spain legitimate aspirations to qualify directly to the RWC 2019 and reestablish the image of Rugby as a sport of integrity and honor. We also plea for an investigation that elucidates actions from officials to the game and Europe Rugby and the relevant actions are taken. We also condemn the behavior of selected SPA players even attenuated by the context surrounding the match.