[beachesl]

Does anyone know when and why FIFA brought in the rule that a player who has played for one national team cannot play for another. It was obviously enacted after 1962 when Puskas played for Spain after playing for Hungary in 1954, and there obviusly have been some ammendments to allow new nations such as Croatia to play players from previous national teams such as Yugoslavia. Any information anyone can provide would bre appreciated.

[iansfavouritecopilot]

I dont know when the rule was brought in, but I do recall a few years ago that Sean Dundee swapped Nat teams.

He played for Karlsruhe (or some German side) and South Africa, then he got one cap for Germany. Dunno how this worked.

Someone correct me if Im wrong....


*Ian*

[Knave]

I thought South Africa was banned from international competetion for some years. Perhaps this was during that time.

[iansfavouritecopilot]

Hmmm, maybe

But surely if this was the case, Mark Fish would have done something similar.

If I remeber correctly, he was playing for Lazio and linked with Man Utd........

???

[Merengue]

The rule is if you play in an "official" match for one country (i.e World Cup match, World Cup qualifying or regional nation's championship or qualifying -i.e. Copa America, Euro Nations Cup, Gold Cup, etc.) you are no longer able to play any official match for another nation (by the way this also applies if you play in any of those matches at the youth level too).

This is meant to prevent situations like what happened with Ferenc Puskas playing first for Hungary and then Spain or Luisito Monti playing forr Argentina in the 1930 World cup (runner-up) then playing, and winning, the World Cup for Italy in 1934.

As mentioned if you played for a unified nation (such as the old Yugoslavia) and a new country emerges from that (i.e. Croatia) you can play for the new country even though you've already appeared in an official match fro the old unified nation.

[n00bie deluxe]

What is the logic behind this rule? Is it to prevent players from getting "several bites at the apple"? (i.e. if you don't qualify on one team, you have a back up.)

[Doctor Stamen]

It's to stop international matches looking silly by players chopping and changing their nations at a whim. It would look silly if Stephan Henchoz suddenly started playing for England now he's probably lived here for 5 years, or someone with a flexible passport like Graeme Le Saux playing for Northern Ireland now he's out of the England team.

What's the point in having internationals if the players could move about in a similar fashion to club football ?. There would be little pride in playing for your country if 7 other players were from Holland, Uganda, Germany or wherever and were in the team because of residency.

[Excape Goat]

1) I recalled Sean Dundee never played for South Africa. He was called up many times, but he was "injuried" on each occassion. It was later discovered that he was waiting for his German citizenship. I don't know whether he played in any "unofficial" game.

2) A few players swapped national teams because they never played in an official match. I can only name American players. Martin Vasquez played for both USA and Mexico. David Wagner played for both Germany youth team and the USA. I think a Jamaican has the honor for playing for Wales, Jamaica and Scotland a few years ago.

3) FIFA made some execeptions for Yugoslavia, Czechoslvakia and USSR when they broke up in the early 90's. However, the players were given only once chance to select the new national teams. Some ex-Soviet players from Ukraine actually selected Russia because Russia took over the international status left behind by the Soviet Union(Russia was in the 1994 WCQ, not the rest of former Soviet Union). The same goes for Germany after unification.

3)

[AvidSinger]

What are the rules about international duties? For instance, if a player leaves his home country for, say, political reasons, can he refuse to play for its national team if he no longer wishes to set foot on his home soil?

[beachesl]

According to the regualtions of 2001. Articles 37 to 41, see http://www.fifa2.com/scripts/runisa....ns/reg/index+E , any player is obligated to play for a team when the National Association of the country of which he has citizenship asks.

This would seem to apply even if the player doesn't wish to , even for political reasons. So, for example, if a player defects from North Korea even if he hasn't played for a national team, and plays for a professional team in Europe, he would have to report for any FIFA sanctioned match in North Korea (where he would preumably disaapear) or be subject (along with his club) to penalty. Surely this
would somehow not be permitted to happen, but thems the rules.

The rules also mean that a player who has citienship with more than 1 country could be simultaneously obligated to appear for both National teams until he has lost his "viginity" with one.

The rules also mean that a player, like Shearer, cannot "retire" or "resign" from a National team, as he can always be subject to a "draft" under the rules.

Interesting. I'm sure that one of the reasons for the rule preventing a player from switching national teams is a holdover from the cold war, brought in at the insistence of the Communist associations in the late 60's (if that was when, I still haven't found out when) to prevent a repeat of the Pukas Hungary/Spain situation. The reasons for these latest Articles are quite a bit more transparent, and probably acceptable to all except the most diehard club fans and the clubs themselves. Sure reduces the potential value of a player from another continent in the Euopean professional leagues though, don't it?