English players Dual Nationality thread

If he's been here for five years when he turns 18 then he can play for us, no?

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_eligibility_rules

 

He should just about qualify on residency, it's 5 years before 18. Januzaj moved at 16 so was always ineligible, and made the whole affair even more stupid, but Quina moved much younger. You'd think the FA would be sure about him given they started chasing him a year ago.

 

Has to of been educated 5 years before his 18 th birthday, think he moved here at 14

 

I could be wrong with how long he's lived in the U.K.

 

Jeremie boga on the 5 year education should be eligible for England. But for whatever reason hasn't been linked to England. They must be an extra requirement like British Passport or something.

 

Ok, but hold on. From p. 72 of the FIFA Statutes, reg. 8 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes ("RGAS"):

So, if we're following the Home Nations Agreement requirement for a player to be educated in England for 5 years before he turns 18, then Quina wasn't eligible for England when he played competitive games for Portugal, and so he can't become eligible now, can he? This is the Mikel Arteta situation again.

The only way that he can be eligible is if he was already eligible for England when he played his first competitive games for Portugal in late-2015. And since he seems to have moved to England around 2013, the only way that that's possible is if the Home Nations Agreement is revoked, in which case we can rely on reg. 6(1)(d) RGAS, which grants eligibility based on living "continuously on the territory of the relevant association for at least two years".

Is anyone aware of any exceptions that I might have missed? If there isn't one, then either this story is yet another nonsense knocked up by journalists who don't understand the eligibility rules, or we're revoking the Home Nations Agreement. And frankly, given the incessant use of the "granny rule" by the Welsh/Scottish/Irish associations, I hope it's the latter. I don't see why we should stick with an agreement that largely only restricts us when they're happy to exploit any loophole they can find.

 

...

 

Think that rule has changed to playing competitive 'senior' international game. To be honest i don't think FIFA knows what's going on with eligibility rules!

 

It hasn't changed. From the most recent FIFA Statutes (linked above):

"Official competition: a competition for representative teams organised by FIFA or any confederation."

Nothing to do with "A" international teams, which is what they call the senior sides. In fact it doesn't make sense if you interpret it as meaning "senior teams", since obviously a player who's played competitive games for one country's senior team can't switch to another country under any circumstances.

 

He's actually eligible for France and Ivory Coast because he was born in Marseille and his parents are Ivorian. He wasn't involved with France U19s during the 2016 Euros.

 

Quina would be eligible to play for England after five years of residency under FIFA rules, but the FA's Home Nations Agreement will always preclude that from happening as per ChristianSur's posts on the subject. Unless they've fulfilled the education requirements, it's quite simply a no-go, and as it requires a majority of the Eng/Scot/Welsh/NIR FAs to vote a change, something they're collectively unwilling to do, this isn't going to happen.

The English FA are well aware of the rule and will occasionally push something like this out to the media to get it attention as they'd benefit more from removing the agreement than the other countries (potentially directly at their expense in some cases), but the chances of it going in the foreseeable future are very, very slim.

Boga does just about qualify under the schooling criteria, and I'm sure the FA will have approached him about it at various times given the fact France have barely ever capped him, so you can assume he's not interested.

 

Quina's first academic year here was 2013-14. He would then also have 14-15, 15-16, 16-17 and 17-18 (the academic year he turns 18). That's how they'll wrangle it through the home nations rules. The fact he's played competitive games for Portugal U17 is the bigger barrier to picking him.

 

Why can't the FA just simply say scrap this home Nations agreement if it basically hinders us more than the other home Nations when ( like Christian says ) look for loopholes and exploit anyway possible to call up our players. It always feels like we have to bend over backwards to keep them happy. As far as I'm aware it's only a ' Gentlemans Agreement ' that really doesn't help us.

 

Yeah, agreed. The Statutes and Regulations are pretty clear on the issue of acquiring a new nationality after you've played in official competition for another country. We've seen this scupper suggestions that we might bring in ringers before (Arteta, N'Zonzi, possibly others?), so it's safe to assume that it's an effective and enforced rule - and to add to that, it's mentioned again in FIFA's FAQ on the process for switching association.

Reading a bit more thoroughly, removing the Home Nations Agreement wouldn't help us in this instance. The 2-year residence requirement would only apply to players who had British nationality through means other than residence, which couldn't apply to Quina. In any case, it's possible that FIFA would refuse to revoke the HNA retrospectively, and would continue to apply it to events that occurred prior to revocation. Either one would mean that Quina's eligibility for England would have been quashed permanently when he played for Portugal competitively in late-2015.

I still think we should get rid of it if we can though. However...

Is that right? We can enter into it voluntarily but only opt out by a majority vote?

 

I don't think it's true to say the school rule hinders England more than the other home nations, all the nations cut themselves off from a wider talent pool by adopting that rule. Without the school rule (or some variation thereof) Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland could in theory chance their arm at every Sterling, Chalobah, Berahino, ect that came out of the English system. Patrick Roberts would be six months away from eligibility to play for Scotland on residency grounds (ignoring his England youth caps) and Wales could/would be sniffing around each and every English player signed by Swansea or Cardiff.

The grandfather thing is part of the standard FIFA rules that any team in the world can unfortunately "exploit" and has nothing to do with the home nations agreement.

 

Well they couldn't, could they? Not unless they could persuade those players to move to Scotland for a couple of years. The only risk I can see is that English players for Swansea and Cardiff could become eligible for Wales.

Sure, obviously. The point is that they don't seem to have much interest in adhering to the spirit of the rules where the letter of the rules deals them an advantage, so I'm not sure why we should pre-emptively prevent ourselves from taking a similar view. And it would advantage us more, as there are far more high-quality Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish players playing in England than there are high-quality English players in those countries.

Not that they'd want to switch, I suppose...

 

The old home nations rule was:

But I think FIFA might have tightened it up.

 

So, have we established that the Quina switch is in fact not possible despite the various papers indicating that he's agreed to switch which will surely make the FA look silly if they have got the rules wrong or not aware of the rules. Unless it's just a journalist looking for a story which in this case the FA should just come out and dismiss it asap.

 

The British associations have - it's a voluntary agreement ratified by FIFA. The most recent update that I can find any formal mention of is this from 2010, which has the effect of:

• Denying a player who has British nationality through means other than residency the right to play for one of the home nations after merely two years' residency in that nation.
• Replacing it with the right for a player who has British nationality through means other than residency to play for any of the home nations if he had five years' education before the age of 18 in that nation.

...with no effect on the ability to qualify through birthplace, parents' birthplace, or grandparents' birthplace.

 

From the text of the Statutes, I cannot see how it's possible. It may be that the FA is hoping to have the eligibility rules changed entirely, but... well, that sounds very optimistic to me. Seems more likely that Matt Hughes and Martin Samuel don't understand the rules, and it's perfectly possible that their contacts at the FA don't either.

 

Tammy Abraham snubs senior Nigeria call up: http://owngoalnigeria.com/2017/04/1...pect-tammy-abraham-snubs-nigeria-for-england/

 

"Revealed: 17-year-old Rhian Brewster eligible to represent Turkey"

http://turkish-football.com/reveale...es-liverpool-squad-eligible-represent-turkey/

 

http://allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=22822

I wonder if this is Nigeria's way of saying Gomes now qualifies to play for them and there going to bring it up with FIFA for a rule change