Should players play for another country after 5 years residency?

[kp41]

Adnan Januzaj is eligible for Belgium, Croatia, Serbia, Albania and in few years Englan. This and recent Diego Costa switch made some controversies. For example, Carlos Wilshere said England is only for the English. There was some discussion about this after Diego Costa case, so let's have a public poll on this 5 years fifa rule.

Scolari said certain countries can bring a group of young players from another countries to form a strong national side, he's completely right, Qatar has many south American players in their squad.

Consider the current rule of 5 years residency for your vote not the case in general.

Feel free to post your opinions as well.

 

[Arnau]

Spain has a lot of Catalans

 

[Mus]

You have to prove you have strong ties to the country e.g. amauri marriage in 2010

 

[Mandieta6]

Gaining residency is not easy, much less becoming nationalised. If someone wants to go through the process it is their right, as they might very well feel identified with their adoptive country. If that country then wants them to represent them in anything, it is up to them. Denying them this right is bigoted (Wilshere sounds like an absolute dickhead). Football doesn't take precedence here, if rhey are citizens of that country they can be called up, end of storey.

 

[Back Door Skip]

There is no controversy as long as it's done legitimately and the players are worth capping (referring to Mexico and their shitty naturalized Argentine call ups).

If it was shady and there were question marks it would be another story. It's not as easy as deciding what team you wanna play for out of the blue. It's more complicated than that.

 

[Mandieta6]

Of course kp40 is the only one to vote for 'No'. Why not, kp40?

I just read Wilshere's comments and he should learn to express himself better or reconsider his public stance on this issue because that sounds like a statement a BNP member would make. I wonder what Wilshere feels about Zaha and Sterling, and if he's fine with them, where does he draw the line on what makes someone English.

His comments on the English style are exactly the mentality that is holding England back as a national team and as a producer of quality players. Wouldn't have expected it from one of the most technical players to emerge from an English youth systems in recent years, much less one who has been trained by Wenger.

 

[kp41]

Spain has a lot of Catalans

your're still part of Spian, not happy? fight for independence ...

Of course kp40 is the only one to vote for 'No'. Why not, kp40?

I'm not against the concept, I voted NO to the rule because it can be misused.

Mus and skip mentioned two important points:
1- players should prove they have strong ties to the country
2- it should be done legitimately

Look at Deigo Cosa case, he moved to Spain for a better life and future, he got Spain citizenship and he can represent Spain. There's nothing wrong with that, it wasn't a plan by Spain federation or him at the start of the process.

As I mentioned, some countries are misusing this rule, they bring a young group of players from other countries to represent them in the future. There is a big project in Qatar at the moment in order to build a good team for 2022, this is not right.

Qatar already did this in the past, example Sebastián Soria, he was born in Uruguay, they kind of changed his birth certificate as well as passport.

Btw, look at the tweets between Carlos Wilshere and cricket legend, Kevin Pietersen ( KP )

Kevin Pietersen
.@Carlos*Wilshere -interested to know how you define foreigner...? Would that include me, Strauss, Trott, Prior, Justin Rose, Froome, Mo Farah?

Carlos Wilshere
@KP24 With all due respect Mr Pietersen the question was about Football! Cricket, cycling, Athletics is not my field!

Kevin Pietersen
.@Carlos*Wilshere same difference.. It's about representing your country! IN ANY SPORT!

Carlos Wilshere
@KP24 I agree thats exactly what i was saying....

Carlos Wilshere
To be clear, never said 'born in England' - I said English people should play for England.

Carlos Wilshere
Great respect for people like KP, Mo Farah and Wilf Zaha - they make the country proud.

Diego Costa case:
The rules are very confusing, Diego Costa can represent Spain with 2 Brazil caps but Arteta couldn't play for England.
Reason: two caps were friendlies

Arteta case:
Fifa rule ends Mikel Arteta's England ambitions
Mikel Arteta has never played for Spain at senior level
Born in Spain, the 28-year-old Everton midfielder had hoped to qualify for England after completing five years residency in the United Kingdom.
However, because Arteta has played for Spain at junior level, he would have had to have held a British passport at the same time in order to be eligible.

 

[yoyo913]

Az, I want to casually warn you on how you'll approach this thread from here on out. It's the sort of thread that you lose you temper in, and at the same time it's ones like these we need to have to continue activity and improvement of SG. Remember the strikes, how we're supposed to give you another chance? If you mess up we know where that will lead...

 

[Mandieta6]

So what's the difference between someone living in that country for 5 years and living in the country for 20 if they both want to represent England and England wants them to play? 5 years is the line that has been set, so that's that, doesn't matter if they have 5, 6, 10, or 15. Wilshere just comes off as a bigot trying to do some damage control and basically avoided answering Pietersen's question.

The rule can be misused, but so can any rule. What do you do to fix that? The only thing I think is acceptable would be for the cut-off date to be the same as the nationalisation date, or just require the person to be nationalised (which in Spain is 10 years (I've been here for 13 and they're still processing)). Other than that, you can just monitor it and try to weed out the liars. But if Qatar gets players to pretend that they feel Qatari, what can you really do? How do you challenge the veracity of that? Do you have them take a test to see if they're really immersed in Qatari culture? Then you'd have to do the same with everyone, even those born there (and believe me, nationalised citizens would fare better than those born there).

 

[kp41]

It should be player's choice, as Yoyo said in another thread, Costa wants to play for Spain, nothing wrong with that ... and he wasn't that good few years ago when he arrived to Spain.

But if certain federation scouts talented players around the world and give them money and citizenship to play for them in the future, that's wrong, then why we need clubs?

 

[Mandieta6]

Because federations are government-funded and it won't pay off for most of them to do so. It is a very insignificant danger. Even if Qatar does do this, they'd have to have someone playing in that country for 5 years to gain residency, and pay them all that extra stuff. In many cases they'd have to gamble on a player becoming good enough to be worth it. I don't think there are that many players who would jump at the chance to leave the centres of world football to spend 5 years (minimum) at Qatar.

And if they do, who is to say they don't love Qatar and want to represent them? It's up to them to do this. What's stopping Victor Valdes from going to Tajikistan for 5 years, out of his own accord, so he can be an undisputed regular and country hero where he'd be appreciated? That'd be a life choice he'd have every right to make. How would you differentiate cases like that, where someone goes to a different country in the hopes that he'll be called up one day, as a carreer move, from those where the country invites them?

So long as it's legitimate there's no issue, and if it's not legitimate then you try to come up with measures against it. Kp40, as the nay-sayer here, you got any idea? I really don't think this is common enough for anyone to be worried about it. There are more than enough things for us to solve in world football before we address this issue, which only exists because of suppressed racism anyway.

 

[kp41]

Kp40, as the nay-sayer here, you got any idea? I really don't think this is common enough for anyone to be worried about it. There are more than enough things for us to solve in world football before we address this issue, which only exists because of suppressed racism anyway.

If you look at any football/sport website, this is the headline topic right now, I think this community should discuss hot topics as well, not just football matches.

The other problem is there are some quality players in their late 20s and early 30s that never presented their national team, some Arab clubs buy them and they have the potential to play for those national sides.

Yes, I'm very concerned, it's not a big deal in Europe and South America, but in Asia, that can make a huge difference, 39 years old Del Piero is still one of the best in A-League. Batistuta scored 25 goals in 21 matches in his last football year in Qatar.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

It's complicated. I don't think Giuseppe Rossi should be allowed to play for Italy because he's not fucking Italian. Same deal with Hargreaves and England. But I don't really mind if someone has committed to being a naturalized citizen; for example I obviously think $teaua should be allowed to represent the USA if he was good at football.

 

[kp41]

Arsene Wenger defends Carlos Wilshere's 'English' comments

"I personally believe what we have really to define is what is an English player and we get that more and more"

"I have young players now with three different nationalities and I ask them how do you feel? You have some, for example, who were born in Africa, they have come to Europe, they have lived for a few years in one country and, after, their parents have moved to another country because they had to find work - and they have three different cultures.

"One of the tasks of the modern politicians will be really to define what is the nationality of a person, because some people feel differently to their passport.

"Have they the freedom of choice or do they have to be educated in a country to feel they love this country? Have you to spend a certain number of years in the country to say you represent this country?

"I feel, as well, in Januzaj's example do you just come six months and play for a country? It's not realistic. Maybe if he stays a few years and he decides that he wants to play for England then...

"But he has not chosen yet which country he wants to play for."

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24469540

Btw, I'm taking side with Wenger, Wilshere or KP here, I'm just posting different side of story ...

 

[newbie original]

To me, 5 years is not enough. You have to use something like 75% of your life.ex. Gabriel Batistuta is 36 years old and moves to Qatar. At 41, he is the best player in their league and has lived there for 5 years. That's 12% of his life*. According to me, it should be 75%.

Adnan Januzaj should be playing for Belgium - the country of his birth. The country that has given everything he needed to start his football career. The country that has probably supported his family. The country that has allowed him to develop as a child and a young man.

If he represents England - by using the residency rule - then that is not fair AT ALL to Belgium.

Other points:
Qatar should not allow South Americans to play in their national team UNLESS those players were born in Qatar or have lived there for the majority of their lives----> more than 5 years.

You have to prove you have strong ties to the country e.g. amauri marriage in 2010

Hahahaha! You're kidding, right?

If you marry a girl from Mongolia, does that mean that you know ANYTHING about Mongolia? NO!

I don't know about you, but 5 seconds ago I just found out that they have buildings in that country. I may have a lot of respect for the people, but I don't know anything about the country......and then 5 years from now, I demand permission to play for their national team? That's ludicrous!

* if you divide by 36, instead of 41, that's 14%....still not even close to 75%.

 

[Mus]

Well that's the FIFA rule... It's not just about citizenship anymore and besides if you gain citizenship to a country you are legally of that country, e.g. english, qatari, krygistanian whatever who is anyone to deny them that basic human right especially Carlos wilshere

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

If you marry a girl from Mongolia, does that mean that you know ANYTHING about Mongolia? NO!

You know one thing about Mongolia, ie what Mongolian vagina tastes like

 

[Mandieta6]

Kp40, I'm not saying it doesn't merit a fiscussion, I'm saying it isn't an important issue. You're just repeating the same minor concern. How would yoy stop it from happening without infringig on people's rights?

Majoriry of their life? So a 50 year old immigrant in Spain who then spends 20 years there should not be able to be nationalised? Remember that nationalisation and the rights that accompany it take precedence to sports. I'd agree that 5 might be too little, but only inasmuch as itbis not the minimum required for nationalisation in most places. That should be the requirement.

 

[Mus]

 

[kp41]

Again, none of those cases were illegal, and happened once in that team at that time ... Fifa should check it doesn't happen in a certain country in a bizarre fashion ... the rule can be misused.

Also, the citizenship of these players shouldn't happen in an illegal or unique fashion, e.g. if you live 100 years in UAE or Qatar, they will not give you passport, yet those governments give it to certain athletes and certain people for their interest.

And Az, as I mentioned, I'm concerned, because my favorite national teams apart from England play in Asia, and these things can be decisive as the Uruguayan player was decisive for Qatar in Asian games few years ago.