From Spain to Portugal: the player who motivated the exclusion of the rugby World Cup team signs for a club from one of the beneficiary countries

Against Gavin van den Berg there is a sports disciplinary file opened by the Spanish Federation. But his resolution is postponed while waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to rule on his involvement in the falsification of his papers.

The South African striker Gavin van den Berg He played his first game this Saturday with Benfica from Lisbon. The improper alignment of this player, denounced by Romania and Portugal, led to the exclusion of the Spanish team from the next rugby world championship. The decision of World Rugby (the International Federation) to dismiss the Spanish appeal benefited those two teams, which had been left behind in the XV del Len in the qualifying phase. Romanian then obtained the direct pass and Portugal dispute precisely these days the last playoff to go to France 2023.

The Spanish team learned of the player’s return to activity hours before the friendly match against Namibia. Bautista Gemes has been the first to express his indignation.

“They are not ashamed to sign a player like that, they are just as shitty as him”, Fernando López, one of the last captains of the team, has shared on his Instagram account. Last May, the Spanish internationals denounced that they felt betrayed by their former partner, who made the opposite statement to them and then to the World Rugby committee examining the case.

Gavin van den Berg appears as registered by Benfica on the website of the Portuguese Federation. Three members of his old club in Spain, Alcobendas Rugby, declared themselves solely responsible for having falsified a document a year ago so that he would not occupy a foreign position in our country. That manipulation motivated the punishment of the selection after it had the pillar in two qualifying matches for France 2023.

Open case in ordinary justice

In the sports field, the three confessed authors of the forgery have already been sanctioned. The then coaches of the Alcobendas Rugby club Tiki Inchausti and Fernando Dez and the player Jano Cherr have been license withdrawn for five years and a fine of 3,000 euros has been imposed on them. Cherr later saw his punishment reduced by half for collaborating with the Spanish Federation in the failed appeal against World Rugby. But against all of them A process in the ordinary Justice is still open at the request of the Prosecutor for possible document falsification.

Weeks after submitting the case to the Public Ministry and with new data, the Spanish Federation also proposed the same sports sanction against Gavin van den Berg himself. It was based on some messages sent by WhatsApp in which he seemed to ask if the photocopy of his passport had already been altered. But this sports procedure is paralyzed: the Spanish Federation has sent the information about the South African to the Prosecutor’s Office and awaits the resolution of the ordinary Justice to resume the possible sports punishment. For its part, World Rugby has never sanctioned Van den Berg. despite the fact that the FER based part of his arguments to maintain his place in the 2023 World Cup in which he also participated in the deception.

The Spanish team has already lost any hope of playing in the 2023 World Cup. After the International Federation rejected its appeal, the Spanish Federation went to the TAS. But, as expected, that resource has not prospered either.