Player Eligibility and Switching National Teams: Case Studies & General Discussion

In the website you suggest, it states correctly that Johannson is entitled to switch because he has 2 nationalities before getting a first call to a youth national team (Iceland u21). If he had played for "A" team he would be cap-tied.

But the colombians i mentioned do NOT have another nationality before playing for Colombia (a similar situation to Diego Costa), and if they played an official match (that was NOT the case of Costa) for any category (U17, u20, even beach soccer) they are permanently cap-tied.

As a matter of fact, FIFA denied the switch to another argentinian wanting to play for Mexico, Rubens Sambueza, because he played for Argentina 35 minutes in a 3rd place playoff in a U17 World Cup (an official match when he only had the argentinian nationality). The Chaco Gimenez affair arised as a consequence of this ruling.

Costa played 2 friendlies for Brasil "A" team before being granted spanish nationality. But the "non-official" nature of the matches allows him to apply for the switch.

The matter in question is if Colombia games in 2011 Southamerican qualification tournament for the U20 WC are considered friendlies because they were are already qualified as hosts of the WC (i.e. they were guests).

Based in the definitions provided by FIFA and the regulations of the tournament, I could not find a congruent basis for the guest argument so I have to consider those matches official ones, with the relevant consequences (cap-tied players)

Or there is something I am missing?

 

Pretty sure Chaco didn't have Mexican citizenship at the time he played those Argentine youth games. So I don't think that applies in this case for the Colombians. The only similarity in the situation is the guest spot. And even though youth confederational championships are supposed to be cap-tying (there are a bunch of examples given in the Chaco switch thread), the guest spot somehow nullifies this if the tournament doubles as qualifiers. At least that's the consensus, because that's the only discernible difference between his case and others. Which means those Colombians are not cap-tied, unless FIFA just completely screwed up with Chaco.

 

I am of the opinion that FIFA really screwed up with Chaco, and they are looking to very quietly sweep the matter under the rug.

There are another instances where a national team of Conmebol played the CONMEBOL qualification tournament for the youth WC they were hosting. Chile in 1987 did it when they U20 WC was held there, and Peru also did it in 2005, but in that ocasion was a U17 WC. Unfortunely, there are no documents available online with the regulations of those qualification tournaments, a similar situation regarding the tournament of 2001, the one where Argentina and Chaco did contest. And the same goes with the info about the squads. Seems that CONMEBOL do not like to keep records.

So, I am limited to consult the regulations of the Southamerican tournament 2011 that I downloaded 2 weeks ago, before they revamped their website again, making near to impossible to access it. To anyone interested here is the URL: http://www.conmebol.com/sites/default/files/reglamento_sudamericano_sub20_peru_2011.pdf (in Spanish, no English version).

From what it says in article 2 (10 participants, i.e. all CONMEBOL affiliates), article 4 (4 berths to U20 WC are awarded to the 4 best positioned teams of the tournament) and article 6 (all teams should be inscribed to take part in the tournament), NO basis is given to argue for the "guest" status,

Only the last article (eveything not covered by the regulations, would be solved acording to FIFA and CONMEBOL statutes and regulations), could offer a way to introduce the concept, bringing back the FIFA definitions of friendly and official match (FIFA Disciplinary Code, article 5)

I am not sure the paperwork is that private, trusting the word of a player regarding his eligibility does not seems a wise policy (see the case of Márcio Passos de Albuquerque).

 

What your missing is a understanding of what an "A level international" means. At the most basic level it's the terminology FIFA uses to indicate a cap-tying match. Up until now, we had thought that any continental or world championship game or a qualifying game to these at any level be it U-18, U-20 or full national team was an A level international. However, this year there have been many indications that FIFA is creating exceptions to those cases.

 

I haven't followed any of the discussion here, but A International to me has always meant a match at the senior level only. It doesn't count Olympic games, youth matches (whether at the youth World Cup or otherwise), or anything else that is not used in FIFA's ranking.

 

The "A" international level is used as distinction between FIFA competitions and other international games or also what is cap-tying and what is not. For instance, the Confederations Cup was originally organized by Saudi Arabia and was not "A" level. In 1997, FIFA took it over and designated it a FIFA competition. Before 1997 those Confed Cup games had the same level as a friendly. The "A" international level is also used in youth soccer to designate which tournaments are cap-tying and which are not.

 

I went through the FIFA document "Regulations Governing International Matches" to see what is FIFA definition regarding "A" internationals. In short, neither an Olympic, nor a U20 nor a U17 match is a "A" international in any way. But that does NOT mean that those matches aren't cap-tying, because they could be official ones, (e.g. U20 WC and qualifiers to such tournament)

Back to FIFA statutes in its section Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes, in art. 5 par. 2 it states any participation in any official match by a player is cap-tying, unless the exceptions stated in art 8 par. 1 are present. Those are a) having already another nationality different to the one which he plays his first official match for (either "A" or U20 or U17 like Sambueza, or beach soccer) and, b) being stripped unilaterally of his original nationality.

So far, Chaco seems the only exception made by FIFA to this set of conditions, and that exception appears to have been given without any solid legal basis. But until a clear and reasoned ruling about cases like this are available to the public, the impression of FIFA doing a selective enforcement of its rules for some countries will continue.

 

I think New Zealand would have protested within an hour, so the Mexican fed didn't test it and didn't name Chaco to their roster. FIFA's response to Panama was rather vague. It didn't comment on the rule, just on the timing of the complaint. New Zealand would have done it on time.

 

If NZ have knew a little more about FIFA Disciplinary Code (see art.108 and art. 42) they could have lodged a complaint straight to the Disciplinary Committee regarding Chaco eligibility for the CONCACAF Hex. That would have forced FIFA to make a ruling at the very least, and, if rules were respected, a playoff with Panama would have been the outcome.

FIFA answer was vague, because they did not want to admit a error, and because Panama Football Federation seems not that eager to make a big fuss (I wonder why?)

 

He still can switch to Portugal. I think he's just a little bit desperate to be in a World Cup. He really should relax and remember that he will still be 28 in the next one.

 

His father is from Kosovo and they are reportedly waiting for Kosovo to be recognised by fifa. Albania is not in the running. It will be either Belgium or Kosovo. It is not clear what Adnan wants himself though

 

Apparently Sambueza has appealed the decision. He is claiming he didn't understand the repercussions of playing in that U17 tournament:

"Antes de que México disputara el Repechaje, la Federación Mexicana de Futbol consultó y recibió la negativa por parte del organismo mundial, ya que Sambueza jugó un Mundial de menores con Argentina.
Tras ello, el propio jugador envió una carta justificando que esa Copa del Mundo la disputó sin conocer las posibles repercusiones. La FIFA respondió solicitando una firma de la FMF en la carta, con la cual Sambueza la envió nuevamente.
'Hay que pensar primero que nos den una respuesta positiva de la FIFA, que llegue esa carta que he mandado. Uno está ilusionado y ojalá que ahorita se pueda dar,' agregó [Sambueza]."

 

They should put a rule like they did with Northern Ireland; that they also have an option to play for Ireland. There is no Kosovo culture or people they either are Serbian or Albanian so they should be able to choose between those 2. Kosovo will most likely not get recognized anytime soon so there is that.

Also it can be very dangerous for an Albanian to defy their family's wishes or ""dishonour" an other Albanian family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanun_(Albania)

It also doesn't help that Januzaj's father looks like an Albanian mob boss.

 

I've never thought of this and it's an interesting take. There is, of course, mounds of legal precedent on children not being held accountable for their actions. Still a long shot, I believe.

 

Have you seen the KTV interview with Albert Bunjaku? I gather that neither Januzaj nor Shaqiri will be called upon when Kosovo plays its first friendly matches. As far as competitive matches and full membership of UEFA & FIFA are concerned ... a lot needs to happen ... if the Gibraltar roadmap is a decent enough indication (Russia, Serbia, etc. instead of Spain opposing membership) then it will not happen in the near future ... in any case I guess that becoming a member before Russia 2018 will be hard.

PS Januzaj rebuked all rumours that he was about to join Kosovo ... he reiterated that he won't decide before he's a mainstay at club level. Although I'm a proponent of Kosovo gaining membership and I'd respect Januzaj if he chose to take part in it, I'm hoping that Adnan joins Belgium and shines in Brazil (+ goes on to become a world class player) ... maybe ahead of the friendly in March we'll know more yet I think Adnan won't decide before Brazil2014.

 

Very interesting article.

http://www.lawinsport.com/articles/...migration-policy-negatively-impacts-us-soccer

 

Another interesting article. This time about the USSF and the "The List".

http://www.howlermagazine.com/foreign-aid/

 

I was thinking about this thread when I saw the winter Olympics last night. Some short track speed skater won a bronze medal for Russia... ...yet he won Medals in previous Olympics competitions for Korea.