Since I have been asked about player eligibility for nationalities in the PMs, I guess that it would be a good idea to explain the problems that Rory Fallon is facing at the moment and why it is such a headache for all of us in New Zealand as we like to see Rory play senior internationals for the All Whites. In 1960's there was an old article 18 in which FIFA disallow players to change nationalites despite players having only played at schoolboy level and was refused to play for another nationality at senior levels. In the 1960's it was a response to many players that played in many national teams and preventing team places for other players to taste internationals games. Now it swings the other way. Players quite rightly complained that they are unable to play internationals/"A" internationals at senior level for their chosen country because they played youth internationals with another country and therefore will never play senior level internationals in their football careers because of the strength of the country they played with as youth and also that when they were playing at an under 21 age e.g. at age 15 etc, they were at an immature age and was not able to make an adult decision due to peer pressure and the fame lure of making a national age team to propeal their football career. For an example, Rory Fallon had played for the England youth internationals and wanted to play for NZ. He had asked FIFA after his 21st birthday when the actual introduction of rule. When the new rule introduced, he was 21. However as I will explain below, there was one year waived on the 21 year limit for players 21 and above. I did actually remember something about him applying for the change in nationalities in 2004. So his request has still not been decided even up to this point of time, hence when the New Zealand coach, Ricki Herbert in 2006 Jan, suggested that Fallon might still get a chance to represent New Zealand at senior level. Herbert claimed that the only reason why Fallon wasn’t picked for the All Whites, as the New Zealand team is known, was due to lack of correspondence from FIFA regarding this matter. Rory Fallon is now 24 and will turn 25 the coming March 2007. That means that they contacted him in 2005 when he was aged 22. The introducation of the new rule was effective as of 1 January 2004, when Rory Fallon was 21. This is where Rory Fallon eligibility is in question is due to the one year of opportunity that FIFA waived the age limit in the first release of the new rule. FIFA waived the age limit for making the request for the first year of the new rule's existence, thus allowing players already 21 or older to change national sides during that one-year adjustment period provided they are otherwise eligible to do so. The regulation that was written in 2004 to cover this was this: "5. Any Players who have already had their 21st birthday at the time of implementation of these provisions and who fulfil the requirements in par. 3 (a) are also entitled to submit such a request to change Associations. This entitlement will expire definitively twelve months after implementation of this provision." Therefore Rory Fallon had use this age waiver in para 5 of the 2004 version of the Article 15 of of the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes to changed nationalities but yet the request is not completely processed and there is a lack of correspondence by FIFA since 2005. To put a another twist to the story, is the practice of FA of the Home Countries. The football associations of the home countries have long allowed young players to appear at schoolboy level for the national side of the home country in which they live regardless of whether they would be eligible to play for that country's national side at a higher level and then to switch to another home country's higher level national side provided they are eligible. Ryan Giggs, for example, played for England Schoolboys because he lived in England although he was not eligible to play for England at a higher level. Later he played for Wales' senior side, for which he was eligible through both his own birthplace and family ancestry. And Bob Wilson, the old Arsenal goalkeeper, played for England Schoolboys but later was capped at senior level by Scotland, for which he was eligible through family ancestry although he was born in England and thus could have played for England had he ever been selected. So in Rory Fallon case, he would be eligible to play for NZ at senior level if NZ was a home nation, which of course it isn't. The home nations are able to such flexibilty because they are part of one national state, the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish citizenship. The associations of these four countries entered an agreement regarding international eligibility in 1993 which provides that a player holding a British passport is eligible to play for the country of his birth, the country of the birth of either of his natural parents or the country of birth of any of his natural grandparents. If the player, his natural parents and his natural grandparents were born outside the U.K., he may play for the home country of his choice. The understanding is that once a player has played for one of the home countries, even if it is only a friendly match, the 1993 agreement precludes him playing for another home country. The FIFA rule change for players under 21 must be followed in the U.K., however. Under U.K. law, a player (or anyone, for that matter) who was born abroad becomes eligible for a British passport after five years of lawful residence in the country, and he thus becomes eligible to play for one of the home countries provided he has not played for another national side in official competition. Since Rory Fallon has British Passport as well as his NZ Passport, it is possible that he could play for any of the Senior international Home nations sides and then be stuck with that home nation nationality should he be turned down by FIFA to change to New Zealand. I hope this issue is resolved soon because it is getting too long in the tooth. Three years on and still no word from FIFA since 2005. Hang loose
Fallon completed a move to Plymouth Argyle of the Championship for £300,000 on January 19, 2007. This equalled the club record.
Yup. As I understand, Tim Cahill had debut for the Australian National Team in 2004, he had only played for the Samoa U20 team as a 14 year old. So the question was not his age or team he played in as he was very young at 14 years. He debut for Australia in the year when the law was introduced in 1st Jan 2004. He would have applied in the 2004 wavier year as a 25 year old and then represented the Australian NT in June 2004 againest South Africa. Yup Tim Cahill was certainty one of the lucky ones to be granted change of Nationalities at a later age in the one-off wavier.