New FIFA "school" rule: What does it mean for the USMNT?

You don't understand correctly. This is just about the unique situation in the UK, with very limited (if any) applicability to the US.

 

It doesn't replace citizenship requirements. It's just applicable in cases where citizenship requirements don't solve the problem -- e.g. when the football country isn't actually a country in terms of citizenship. In other words, it just applies to the UK. Please.

 

Only some people.

I thought it was a legit discussion, and BigSoccer served a useful purpose by helping us get to a better collective understanding.

 

Did someone mention the Spanish Inquisition?

 

And (if FIFA is consistent) Puerto Rico. Guam. Hong Kong. New Caledonia. A handful of other soccer-wise insignificant territories.

 

A question of not great import, but certainly not stupid. I suspect that with respect to non-UK cases, the rule will continue to be -- if you are a US citizen, you can suit up for Puerto Rico or Guam if you want to and they call you. This rule is just related to unique British senistivities about Home Country nationalism.

 

Clint - I really don't think this has any applicability outside the UK. The difference in the US system is that the USMNT is equivalent, not to England, but to a UK team, which doesn't exist and that is why there are the special rules for the Home Countries. I believe any US citizen can and will be able to play for the USMNT without restriction.

 

Yes, any US citizen can play for the USA, even if their citizenship comes from being born in a territory, and they've never even visited an actual state, and none of their parents or grandparents ever visited an actual state.

However, a rule such as this could apply if Guam or Puerto Rico were to try to call up a US citizen from the mainland who had no connection to the territory. FIFA dealt with a situation such as this during 2002 qualifying, when the Cayman Islands tried to bring in a group of lower-level pros from England and Scotland. The Caymans are a British territory, so there is no such thing as Cayman Islands citizenship. FIFA stepped in a day or two before the game and ruled the players ineligible, as the players were not born in the Cayman Islands, nor had they lived there, nor did they have any family connections there. They probably would do the same if Guam tried to call up someone with no ties to Guam, but very likely could use this Welsh precedent to allow Guam to use a US citizen player who had no ancestral tie to Guam but lived there a few years as a child.

 

The French know how to beat the system. Martinique is a "state" within France, which is actually called a "Department". Martinique soccer federation is recognized by concacaf but NOT by fifa. So a player can be capped by Martinique in the Gold Cup yet play for France in the World Cup. The trick is to get "countries" like PR, Guam, US Virgin Island, Amer Samoa to drop their Fifa association, yet keep their association to their respective local Federation.

 

nobody expects the spanish inquisition.

 

for PR there might be too much of a risk for other sports.

 

Don't forget that withdrawing from FIFA would only affect soccer and not any other sport, as that is what FIFA governs.

 

I'm not clear about whether Fifa requires "citizenship" or a "passport" for membership on a national team. In the US you need to be a citizen to get a passport, but perhaps that is not the case elsewhere.