Spain deserve their spot. The guy can qualify within this year. tsk tsk. Spain deserve their spot.

Again?…. seriously? This is getting ridiculous

Let's see, let's weigh things: federative negligence/crime/administrative fault, it must be purged,,, but, the standard of the Committee designated by World Rugby is very severe, given the risk assumed and the benefit achieved. I think it doesn't leave the claimants in a very good place either, it's a bit creepy and they haven't even faced the pawn in the field. By the way, has the direct player affected by the judgment, that is, the Netherlands, claimed his points? The Fair Play would start there, right? Spain to enjoy the RWC2022 from home. Thank you very much

Sht …. I was very excited to see Spain qualify. Im Irish and my wife is Spanish and loves Rugby.

Dopey organiser's they should be fired.

So wr gives the ok for this player to play for Spain, then Romania denounces us (remember where from is the European Fed's president…), and same wr who gave us the ok (cause the Spanish asked before aligning him) say we've done something wrong and Romania magically qualifies… Sure, nothing fishuy here

But there's always players from other countries playing for others, Ireland is full of Aussies and Kiwis

First the paralympics, then uefalona and now this twice in a row. If Russian athletes are banned for doping is it time to ban Spanish athletes for consistently cheating too? 🤔🤔🤔

Forging a passport sure what could go wrong …. Throw some holy water on it … on a different point what’s the log ???

This kind of stuff is really becoming embarrassing for rugby. And why does it come out now? Romania appeal, did they know or was it just a fishing expedition?

Sadly, I’m not surprised to hear this, after the farce that was the 2019 RWC euro qualifiers. Shame, as I was looking forwards to seeing Scotland play them. Their players must be angered to be missing out on yet another tournament through controversy

Seriously….give them a break. Makes no difference. Amateur level they should just drop it.

Illegible player…immediately knew it was a South African. Eish✌🇿🇦😂

Portugal has been great. They are not the biggest but boy are they physical. Rooting for Portugal

What the hell? How can they let this happen TWICE!? The exact same thing happened 4 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Rugby_World_Cup_%E2%80%93_Europe_qualification

I feel really sorry for the other Spanish players who had nothing to do with this and played great to qualify for the World Cup. This seems really harsh tbh.

Too bad the prop didn't simply stay in South Africa. I know, maybe we should play for the country where we were born in the first place! Oh yes – MONEY.

Sucks for the rest of the team, but this is pretty basic stuff which the administration should have been on top of.

So sad for the Spanish rugby fans, it all seems so stupid and needless! Are the people running Spanish rugby full or part time, they just seem so amateurish? This points to the problem of all these players jumping around countries in lower tier rugby!

oh my… am so gutted for them. was so hype to see them perform in the WC. and it's especially so sad that the guy only played vs Netherlands… such a waste.

The regulation states that it is the Union that is totally accountable for player eligiblity. So it's down to how the FER manage that process. WR received data from the Union & only have reason to double check it if it's challenged (by ROM in this case). So WR not really to blame as I understand it. We could argue that the punishment doesn't fit the offence (my view). As I read the regulation it seems that the judicial comm. were not forced to cancel match points. So could appeal that on the grounds the player had no material part in the massive victories in question. Damn it, my wife is Spanish, I'm Irish and we were really looking forward to our opening pool game, each wearing the opposition colours!

Same thing happened to Germany years ago. They got close to qualifying a while back, but had a South African in the squad. Kinda like,…….Spain!

You’d think given that it’s something as important as a World Cup qualifier that they’d check, double check and triple check everything. I don’t know if much blame can be put on Van den Berg as he was probably told by someone he trusted that everything was okay. Players won’t know all the admin rules surely!

If I was a betting man I think Portugal will win the repechage

How does this very harsh decision by the IRB help build rugby in Spain? Of course i realise the IRB have no interest in developing rugby as a meaningful game outside the world's top 10 nations.

I Can't believe Spain would do something like that, I was legit so hyped to see Spain at the World Cup

As a Spaniard, this has hit us hard. The worse part is that everyone involved is already trying to save their asses. After two world cups with the same crap, everyone in the federation should just go. So sorry for our players

Horrible ruling. So tough on the entire team that 1 player messed things up.

Alan Shields
Hamilton
South Lanarkshire
Scotland.

This situation makes Rugby Union look shambolic at best & it's not the first time from memory this has happened

From memory this happened to
Belgium & Romania in qualification for the last World Cup.

As I sead shambolic best describes the entire situation.

Spain have absolutely no chance of winning this appeal.