Player Eligibility and Switching National Teams: Case Studies & General Discussion

Kosovo (and Gibraltar) joins FIFA today.

The most controversial discussions, though, will be the issue of players’ switching nationalities. A number of players born in Kosovo or with roots in the territory now play for other teams, including Albania’s captain, Lorik Cana; Belgium midfielder Adnan Januzaj; and Switzerland midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri.

The Kosovo federation, citing what it calls Kosovo’s unique set of circumstances, has called for players to be granted a one-time chance to switch nationality immediately, which is currently against FIFA rules.

But several European national teams could be decimated if such switches were permitted. At the 2012 World Cup qualifying match between Switzerland and Albania, for example, a majority of the 22 players who started the match had Kosovar roots.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/s...sovo-paving-way-for-fifa-membership.html?_r=0

 

"Lose eligibility" may not be the right term. Likely, he was never eligible for the team in the first place.

 

For 2018 WCQ there might not be a problem (all groups now would have 6 teams in them), but for the 2022 WCQ, there will have to be one group with 7 teams in it, as no Uefa team would have an automatic spot for the WC (currently, for 2018, Russia has it for being host next WC)

 

Not that Montserrat wins many games, but if he was never eligible in the first place, FIFA neglected to notice.

 

FIFA only notices if someone files a protest (in most cases, anyway). There's no system for clearing the eligibility of the average national team player.

 

Well then there are probably plenty of players who could get away with playing for national teams they're not eligible for. Players on some national teams won't have a lot of information about them online (or might have most of the information about them online in a different language than their opponents), and most national teams are not going to spend time researching the eligibility of the opposing players one by one.

Groups of 7 require 4 more matchdays than groups of 6, including 2 matchdays off for each country. One option would be to start World Cup 2022 qualifiers before Euro 2020. Another option would be having 10 groups. If there were 10 groups and UEFA got 13 teams in the World Cup, the top six second place teams could go to the playoffs. UEFA used 10 groups in qualifying for Euro 2004.

 

UEFA will also use 10 groups in EURO2020 Qs. The Nations League could be the format to allocate those 3 Qatar 2022 berths as well (3 groups with play-off matches between 4 teams for the 2020/21 Nations League instead of 4 groups for the 2018/19 Nations League) ... isn't it the idea to have a major tournament every summer ... well Qatar 2022 would take place in December instead of June/July.

 

There's rumors in the Colombian Forum that Keeper Franco Armani of the Libertadores Champion Atletico Nacional is contemplating becoming a Colombian citizen so that he could be eligible to be called up by Pekerman for the National team.
(I hope it happens. Would be a fantastic backup if Ospina get's injured or in a rare situation suspended.)

 

They're waiting to see whom bribes them better, before taking a decission...

 

Mmmh, that could explain "Chaco" Gimenez express clearance to play for Mexico

Seriously, ¿does FIFA produce any kind of official document stating this clearance to play for another association? ¿Or is just a verbal communication, in order to avoid a paper trail?
Because "Chaco" was able to switch allegiance quite quickly and with only a verbal declaration of Mexican Federation that everything was in order. When Panama asked for some proof to FIFA, they only got a communication stating that FIFA could not answer that request,
I presume Kosovo would not get the same treatment as Mexico regarding players switching allegiances

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/05/kosovo-fifa-clearance-finland-world-cup-qualifier

5 cleared ... 1 to go

 

How these granted requests of change of association are communicated? Are these documents publicly available or confidential? So far is through press releases that we learned the resolution of these requests.

 

I heard that the players that wanted a switch (allowed by the more lenient rules), had to make a request before Kosovo's first qualifier ... although I haven't found an official source confirming that deadline. Has the window closed and will Kosovo have to follow the same rules as every other FA?

 

That's one of the problems for determining eligibility. FIFA doesn't appear to announce publicly submission or approval of federation switches or of any waivers granted (primarily for the "5 years after 18" switch with new citizenship). You'd feel pretty silly protesting a player's eligibility only to find out that he had been granted a FIFA waiver. There really should be a repository of this information for federations to review.

And at some point, FIFA needs to announce if the Kosovo "exception" is a permanent one or if there is a limit to how long a player cap-tied before the entry of Kosovo into FIFA can switch.