Ok, that is a vital piece of information. Hope you don't mind sharing the direct link, because uefa web is quite complicated to navigate. It only add that info regarding players in youth tournaments is quite difficult to find.
Every UEFA player is searchable by name. Here is his profile page: http://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/players/player=103892/profile/index.html
Thanks for the link. With that info, I accept that Toulon Tournament do not appear to be cap-tying for a player. Now we know that Sertic played 2 matches in a UEFA sanctioned tournament, the one against Czech Republic, and one against either Denmark or Turkey. Unfortunely, his profile do not provide a detailed relation of the matches where he appeared on the pitch, only the one of his debut. So Sertic played those matches in 2006 when he only had a French passport. FIFA decided that Sertic's heritage is not enough, he also needed to be in possession of a Croatian passport before those matches if he wanted to switch allegiances in the future. But one thing to take into account, those matches were NOT used as qualifiers for any FIFA final tournament. Since UEFA u17 is an annual competition, only the ones held in odd years serve for the purpose of deciding which european teams go to the U17 world cup. The one in 2006 only served to decide which nation was the best U17 side of that year in Europe Same with Gimenez. Even if Argentina was already qualified to the u20 WC as hosts, he participated in a CONMEBOL sanctioned tournament to decide the best U20 team in South America of that cycle (2001), which also doubles as qualifiers for a FIFA final tournament. So the main question remains. Why FIFA awarded different elegibility rulings for the same set of facts, i.e., participation in a confederation sanctioned youth tournament without being in possession of another passport? Maybe Croatia could ask to FIFA to reconsider Sertic elegibility using Gimenez antecedent
Yunus Malli (Mainz 05) has switched to Turkey after playing for Germany's U17, U18, U19, U20 and U21 teams. He won the UEFA U17 Euro in 2009 and also played in this summer's U21 Euro.
I don't think FIFA takes that into consideration. If a confederation has an age-eligible competition that doesn't lead to a FIFA tournament, it still counts. I have never seen a good list of which competitions (and qualifiers that lead to competitions) count, but the general principle is that a confederation has a true youth tournament that follows the rules of a tournament (vs. friendlies) and every fed is eligible to enter, it's a competition.
I'd qualify your statement by saying that FIFA has been inconsistent in its rulings. I don't think there is a list.
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...a-national-soccer-team-with-brazilian-players Is East Timor Illegally Putting Together a National Soccer Team With Brazilian Players?
Perhaps this explains why it's not an issue: FT: Timor-Leste 0-10 Saudi ArabiaFive goals for Al Sahlawi, double figures for Saudis. #WCQhttps://t.co/7ipu8YacyR pic.twitter.com/JAMPhI735Z— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 17, 2015
Frédéric Veseli is another (former) Swiss youth international that has decided to switch to Albania. He captained the U-17 Swiss team that won the world cup. No controversy here - they need him more than we do. But with Albania now having the 2016 Euro carrot they may go after some of our other, more valued players.
A case of rampant eligibility fraud in the women's game in Africa. The journalist is horribly confused about the old "age 21" rule. http://www.africanindy.com/sport/a-...-birthdates-shows-how-rules-were-bent-1551036
if a player was born in country "B" and his father held the nationality of country "A" but his father was not born in country "A" because he is a citizen of country "C" meaning he gained the nationality of country "A". Does that mean the player in question has to reside for 2 or 5 years after the age of 18 in order to play for country "A"? I ask this because of Alfredo Morales of the USA He was born in Berlin His father was born in Peru His mother was born in Germany his father gained american citizenship through military service (I think). I am confused how he qualifies for the USA after reading article 5, 6 and 7. I would understand how he qualifies if his father had actually been born in the USA then it would be pretty straight forward, but his father was born in Peru and gained the American nationality Article 5 does state 1. Any person holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on residence in a certain Country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of that Country however Article 6 also states 1. A Player who, under the terms of art. 5, is eligible to represent more than one Association on account of his nationality, may play in an international match for one of these Associations only if, in addition to having the relevant nationality, he fulfils at least one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has lived continuously on the territory of the relevant Association for at least two years. Morales was not born in the USA and neither was his Father (gained the citizenship), so while Morales is an american citizen he would not meet the FIFA requirements (as I understood them) Article 7 Acquisition of a new nationality Any Player who refers to art. 5 par.1 to assume a new nationality and who has not played international football in accordance with art. 5 par. 2 shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfils one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association. Again Morales or Father were not born in the USA. Morales has also resided in Germany his whole life
Remember, the idea behind the article is to keep footballers from being granted easy citizenship for football reasons. So timing is everything. If the person was eligible from birth (such is Morales' case) than the citizenship is fine by FIFA. If the person is a footballer but obtained citizenship for "non-football reasons" there are also appeal process for this. There are certainly ways to abuse this. For instance Ireland nationality law confers Irish citizenship to all persons born in North Ireland. Because of this law the Irish FA has poached numerous North Irish players. FIFA has not tried to block this at all.
There is a waiver system available for unusual situations and we know from another case that the US has applied for a number of these. It's possible that he has been granted an eligibility waiver that we aren't aware of.
At the very minimum, I'm certain that the US has sent in Morales' paperwork for review by FIFA. They do this in a lot of cases.
Greek Born, Australian raised Apostolos Giannou, appears to be finally committing to the Australian NT. He had 8 Youth team appearances for Australia followed by 20 Youth team games for Greece, then appeared in one friendly for the Greek NT has been called up for Australia's upcoming WCQ's which will tie him to Aus now if he takes the field. This decision corresponds to Giannou's move to the Chinese Super League with Guangzhou R&F. He was the 2nd leading goalscorer in the Greek League this season, before the move to China.
Guilherme gains Russian citizenship, called up for Sbornaya: http://futbolgrad.com/guilherme-called-up-to-the-russian-national-team/ This case is probably more controversial inside Russia than outside (Guilherme has played and lived in Russia since 2007) but it's interesting to read that a few more naturalized players may be in the pipeline.
Mato Jajalo(Palermo & Croatia) and Danijel Milicevic(Gent & Switzerland) are switching over to Bosnia. Mario Pavelic(Rapid & Austria) was also offered a spot on the team but he declined as he would lose his Austrian passport if he got a Bosnian one, and he did not want to do that.
Danijel Milicevic is a switch that made sense for all parties involved since he isn't in Switzerland's plans. I believe he also could have chosen Serbia. Funnily enough he may play against Switzerland with Bosnia this month.
Kosovo became a UEFA member today. Up next is probably FIFA membership on 13.05.16: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kosovo-voted-uefa-member-entry-2018-world-cup-111216280--sow.html How will FIFA handle any requested switching to Kosovo?
Interesting. Politics aside, it would even out the numbers a bit with only one Group having 5 teams instead of two Groups.
I imagine FIFA will be pretty flexible and create some rules specifically for Kosovo. Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
Actually, Gibraltar could also get FIFA membership on the same day as Kosovo after the CAS decision in favor of Gibraltar. Then all UEFA groups would have six teams. Yes, I imagine a limited window in which anyone who wants to switch can do so.
Is it rare to lose eligibility for a national team? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Wade says about Julian Wade "after being declared ineligible to further represent Montserrat under FIFA's new eligibility rules, Wade made an international switch to represent his native Dominica."