1. My favourite club is Sporting CP. Why? Because Toronto FC is the anti-thesis of what a football club is supposed to be. I'd watch Montreal but they aren't broadcast, in English Canada. Vancouver is meh, I admit I watched them, but it's quite difficult learning to like a club from a city you despise. Who would you like me to support? Last I checked we were talking about National teams, not club teams, so who I support at the club level is irrelevant. But in the interest of full disclosure, I also used to watch Real Madrid, Montpellier, Roma until they were ripped from Canadian television by beIN Sport. I also went to quite a few MLS games, but the mismanagement of TFC by a company renowned for mismanaging its teams really dampened my desire to support a local club by about year 3-4. 2. I'm working in Portugal at the present time. Hence my location is: Portugal, not Canada. But if you're asking if I support Portugal? Sure I do, because I know that every few months I'll see them on television, and come every European Cup tournament I can see them on t.v.. Regrettably Canada is located in North America, and not eligible for Euro....but they are eligible for the Gold Cup, which I also watch, did I mention I traveled to L.A. in February 2000 to watch Canada win the Gold Cup?.Were you aware that I bought tickets to the entire WC 2014 qualification process thus far, even if I couldn't attend quite a few games, do to work? If Portugal played Canada, Canada would come first. There's where my priorities lie, my birth/education nation. I think there's a difference between being a multicultural hypocrite and being realistic. Realistically if I ONLY watched Toronto FC and Canada, I'd live a very sad and pathetic life, I'd miss most of REAL football season, because MLS does not operate on a winter schedule, they operate on a summer schedule. That being said, I wholeheartedly back Canada over any nation. I think it's reasonable to watch a 2nd nation from an entirely different FA that will likely never meet Canada to play a game (friendly or competitive) at any point in my lifetime. Nonetheless, even if they did, Canada would be who I support. What I would not do is play for any country other than Canada, even if Spain, Brazil, France, Portugal or whoever offered me the opportunity. It disappoints me that Canada NT gear is so poorly merchandised. You'll have an easier time finding a foreign club or nation, than a Canada jersey. I'd love to play goalkeeper in a Canada jersey, but they don't sell them. 3. That's Diego Capel, a Spanish player who plays for a Portuguese club. Would you prefer I have a French, Irish or American player who plays for Toronto FC as my avatar instead, seeing as the best Canadian player on Toronto FC is Dunfield, since they foolishly alienated De Rosario. If there was a Canadian on Sporting, I'd gladly put them in my avatar, sadly there isn't even a Canadian-born player within Sporting's youth academy. Where's your Avatar, club, nation? Or are you just throwing stones for the sake of it?
Various middle eastern countries are paying Brazilians to become citizens so they are eligible for their National Teams.
A quick trip to Wikipedia says we'd lose six or eight players. I suspect the ones we'd gain would more than off set them. That said, I'm not proposing this based on how it impacts Canada's national team today but rather as a more simple and fair system moving forward. Countries that are already good don't need to poach from the meager resources of those that aren't.
Personally I think that this would be highly unfair to the players. According to this rule, there would be players being forced to play for a country that they have absolutely no connection to and don't even remember living there. I think a better rule would be that a player has to pick their nationality by the age of 20 and stick with it. If FIFA were to say "you play for the country you were born in" they'd essentially be overriding the countries laws about what their nationality is, and giving players false nationalities. Is someone who was born in South Africa and raised in Canada from the time they were two less Canadian than someone who was born in Canada but emigrated at the age of two and grew up in Germany?
Right, you'd even get ridiculous situations like players only being eligible for countries they weren't even citizens of. Very few countries outside the Americas have jus soli. To move from "insane proposal" to just "radical proposal", you'd presumably specify that players can only play for countries whose nationality they held at birth.
I'd be willing to accept this clarification. My point was not to force you to play for the Bahamas because your were born prematurely while your parents were on vacation there. Or for the English because your mother went into labour during a stopover at Heathrow. My point is to take the guessing and choice out of it. And, yes, occasionally you'd end up with someone eligible for a country they feel no affinity for.
I think the rule should be a country you have resided in (and are a citizen of) for a minimum of 5 years before reaching the age of 18. I think that's the most fair.
I don't know. We live in a complex world where people change citizenship on a scale never seen before, for all sorts of reasons. I think FIFA's system could probably be clarified, but I don't think there's any way to turn back the clock to a simpler time. If you come from a family that pulled up stakes and moved to a strange distant country to make a better life, there's a high probability that your concept of citizenship is different than what some people on this thread seem to hold to. The same holds for children of parents with different citizenships. At the end of the day, if Soccer Canada wants to keep Canadian talent in the system they have to start by running a competent, professional system that puts the development and welfare of players ahead of internal political BS. Things seem to be getting better and if that continues I expect that the end result over the long term will be more loyalty from young players. As the Canadian game improves and its profile grows there will be more money in the system. That won't hurt either. It works both ways in international sport. Think of the number of Canadians playing on European national hockey teams under citizenship provisions that are pretty similar to FIFA's rules. It is what it is.
I think right now the best thing they could change is stop allowing players to play for the country of their parents/grandparents that they've never lived in.
that is not actually fair my lil brother was born in america and only went to peru for vacations and he loves peruvian socce rmore than i do and i was borned in peru, if he would ever become a professional, he told me his heart would love to play for peru so this is an unfair rule i believe the player has the right to choose where he wants to play, but once he made a decision that should remain.
Unfortunately that won't happen until all the old men from the UK that are on the board that think they know football better than anyone else because they are from the UK. When these old boys retire/die, that's when we'll have some change with Soccer Canada. Most of the Italian olympic hockey team were born, educated and learned to play in Canada. They just sucked so hard that they moved to Italy to pursue a career and when the olympics came to Italy it was a no brainer for them, play in the olympics for Italy, or never play in the olympics for Canada. Few years later none of them regret the decision and you see them cheering for Canada in the Salt Lake and Vancouver games. I think the slights that piss me off the most more than anything aren't the ones that never played for our underage teams growing up, but the ones who did and then decided they were some other ethnicity: Begovic and Bunbury. First you have the U20 GK that stars in Adidas commercials saying how he is so thankful to be in Canada because in Bosnia he'd have to play in his room and catch balls off the wall because of the bullets flying around outside, so you get this sense that he really loves Canada. Then he plays in U20 for us, gets a red card in the last game and then all of the sudden becomes "Bosnian" over night and tells us to get lost. Second you have the son of one of the greatest Canadian players to ever play, with a kid born in Canada, he plays for our U17 and U20 teams, says it'd be wrong to play for the USA, then promptly accepts a call-up to play for them. And since his first call up in 2010 he's played all of 4 games for them. He'd likely start or be a spot starter for us. Those are the ones that really piss me off. I have to restrain myself from going on twitter and throwing subliminal insults at them when they tweet pictures of themselves growing up "oh nice pic Teal, that was back when you were Canadian right?"
At work and soo stressed. Will dvr it and start watching it at 5. Aahhhhhhhhhhhh! ....calm....breathe..... Ahhhhhhhhhh!
HUGE NEWS Jonathon De Guzman WILL play for Canada IF they make it to the HEX. Might help bring in Junior Hoillet COME ON BOYS
Here's the link to the JDG2 story... http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2014-world-cup/2012/10/16/jonathan_de_guzman_canada_david_hoilett/
It's a shame he will only do it IF you make the hex. If he is that uncommitted to Canada he might not be worth it. Having drama about answering friendly call ups is never good for a NT or other trouble that wishy washy players add
I'm American but rooting for you guys today. I'm bummed out watching this game on a dirty stream at work. I'm hoping for a big time comeback, but its not looking good.
JDG2 and Hoilet have no right to wait and see when they could be out there right now making a difference and getting us to the hex. What a f*cking joke when your best players will only play if the less than top players can bring the team to the top.