FIFA recently changed the regulations on player eligibility for naturalised players to represent their adopted country. The relevant regulation is below "17 Acquisition of a new nationality Any Player who refers to art. 15 par. 1 to assume a new nationality and who has not played international football in accordance with art. 15 par. 2 shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfi ls 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." I can understand why they've toughened it up to include 5 years of residence, but why have they stated that the 5 years must be after a player has reached 18? This means that anyone whose family has emigrated to a new country whilst they were still a child, would not be eligible to play international football for their adopted country until age 23, provided they stayed in that country until then and didn't go and play in a foreign league. For example, there is a talented young player playing for Sydney City in the A league who was Ghanain by birth by emigrated to Australia as a 7 year old. He was brought upo and educated in Australia, has played all his football here and has been a part of the Australian Football structure for his entire footballing career, but despite being part of our squad preparing for the under 20's in 2011 this new regulation means he cannot play for Australia until he reaches age 23, and if he is good enough to get a proffessional contract in Europe or elsewhere before then will never be eligible. He has spent 11 years here and came here for non footballing reasons, but cannot play youth international football. Why is there an over 18 limitation to the residency provision, even if the player moved to his new country for non footballing reasons?
strange rule, I would think moving to a country when you were young would make you more connected to the country than someone who moved there when they were older. On a seperate note, I think FIFA should outlaw all Brazilians from playing on foreign teams period.
In the case of Kofi Danning thing he has been allowed to join the Australian squad for the WYC. Seb Ryall (who has a whole different problem) will not be in the squad as the FFA isn't going to touch him due to his "charge". On the FIFA point - it seems their policy is "Make changing countries hard, but use the appeal process as required". I think they have made the correct call here, as having "non-football reasons" as a way for people to change countries is too easy to get around as once a reason has been allowed (say, marriage) then lots of people will exploit it (say, fake marriage). As a result, FIFA will make you ask for a country change, and then (hopefully) allow the realistic ones like Danning but stop the Brazilian importation cases. J