Junior caps no longer count. Bruce should play Freddy the next chance he has. Here's the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-fifanationality&prov=reuters&type=lgns
Exactly what reason would Freddy have to play for Ghana instead of the USA? It's not exactly like these are two teams of similar strength and potential.
Freddy is not going to go play for Ghana. Relax, this was covered months ago before the rules went into effect.
Yes, and Freddy has been on record for 2 or 3 years now that he wanted/wants to play for the US. I remember picking up the washington post here when he was 11 in which he droned on and on about he couldn't wait for citizenship so he could win a WC with the United States. He ain't going anywhere. He knows where his bread is buttered.
I'm sure that Nike would prefer that Freddy eventually play for the US instead of Ghana. I don't think Arena should be (or is) in the business of handing out caps for anything other than competitive reasons. If he was then surely Meola would've gotten the on cap necessary to get to 100. No Bruce only calls up the players he's developing for the next competitive cycle, or are in top league form.
Anyone know if the senior caps have to be in official FIFA events in order to cap-tie now? If not, might coaches now be tempted to call up good younger players for a friendly or two? Not sure I really like the rule change. Seems there would be potential for abuse. For example, what's to stop Italy from poaching the most promising young players from Africa?
They are already doing it. this law is trying to PREVENT that exact scenario. As clubs like France and Holland have more money to throw at African footballers when they are young and impressionable, these countries are getting these kids young in their youth systems, and then cap-tying them before they are adults. This law would now allow those same Africans to wake up from this situation when they are 20 yrs, 364 days old and decide that "hey, i never wanted to play here for their team. I wanna play for my home team." before, these players would allow themselves to be cap-tied because of the money, and as youngsters, it was hard to refuse. Now if gives them a bargaining chip and a way out from under the exploitation. so basically, you have it backwards.
The example you laid out is the one the article gave, but I wasn't sure what the net effect would be. Would there be more Africans returning to play for their original countries for whatever reason (e.g. regret, couldn't catch on with Holland), or would there be more attempts to persuade exceptional players who had been cap-tied to African countries (e.g. played for Sierra Leone in U-17 WC) to jump ship? I really don't know.
Does this mean that Santino Quaranta (he has an Italian Passport?) is no longer cap tied to the US? I mean if suddenly Italy decided that he could be a force by the age of 25 could they offer him a chance to play for them in Euro 2004 or something?
This is an easy one, seeing that Holland has an African-born (Ghanian) player on their senior national team at this very moment (George Boateng). I would look up more, but since i know that one off the top of my head, i'll stop there.
you are most definitely correct about that. most of their players of color are from Suriname or of Suriname descent. However, (and please don't think i'm being a snob or anything), but i travel pretty extensively and was in holland recently, and there are a lot more african people there than you might think. the same goes for England, Belgium, and obviously France ............ tons of africans.
I was just using him as an example. This is America. There are MANY people with dual citizenship. Does this mean other countries can attempt to raid our youth teams?
If you want to look at it like that, sure, other countries can attempt to raid our youth teams. But looked at in another light, we can also "raid" theirs as well. We could probably be more successful at it as well because we have less competition for those youth to get on the national stage. If you have to compete against the Italian nationals for a job as opposed to the American nationals, which would the average prospect pick? I'd choose the place where I have a better chance to get major playing time, and that would be for the USA. Over time, this may change, but I don't think we can be too worried about that at the present.
well, there are some matters where people will do things for money... if some one offered you $1000 per month for life to change citizenship would you do it???/ Well, Stephen Cherono did so... you might NOT know who he is, but he's from Kenya by birth... and now Qatar by citizenship... oh, by the way he's the WORLD Champion in the steeplechase.... oh, Merlene Ottey, formerly of Jamaica now competes for Slovenia.... people change allegiances in other sports... who knows about the future in football...perhaps for some moolahh some country will sell some footballers to the lesser light nations....
What's stopping them? It's impossible. See, the loophole only exists if when a player is captied (like happened to Freddy when he played in U-17 qualies) he's ALREADY got dual citizenship. How many U-18s would be eligible for Italy and another nation? Damn few.
Here's what the CIA World Factbook says: Dutch 83%, other 17% (of which 9% are non-western origin mainly Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese and Indonesians) (1999 est.)
The original article wasn't very clear on this point. Here's what it said: The new regulations mean any player under 21 who has represented one country in any team other than a full senior international can be called up to represent another country. However, I've since noticed that the official version of the new rule does state that the player must have been eligible to play for the second country at the time he first appeared for the first country in order to switch: Regarding the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes, the new Article 15, which deals with the eligibility for national teams of players with dual nationality, was also amended to reflect the fact that “a player may exercise his right to change Associations only if he has not played at “A” international level for his country and if, at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition of any other category, he already had such nationalities.“. Moreover, in the English version, the word “nationality” would replace “citizenship” for the sake of clarity. http://www.fifa.com/en/display/mrel,72324.html Makes much more sense and lays to rest some of the fears I had regarding the new rule. Can't say I have any objections to this one.