FIFA Eligibility Broken

[deschamp86]

I think its been plain to see for everyone here, that the FIFA Eligibility system is massively flawed as we continue to lose Canadian players to other countries.

 

I began to think what the national team would look like if to be eligible for a national team, you must have A. been born in that country or B. Resided in that country for over 50% of your life before your first cap.

 

There were a number of changes good and bad and was curious to see what others would think of this system. I've provided below a list of players who would be eligible or lose eligibility for Canada, I also included a number of big name defectors to see where they would stand.

 

Though no system is perfect, it sure cuts down on mercenaries. You would no longer see Brazilians playing for every country imaginable, and the debate of nationalizing players would end.

 

The majority of data that I got is from Wikipedia so please excuse accuracy issues, its hard to otherwise find when certain players moved to Canada etc.

 

Players born in Canada (with other options due to residency)

Will Johnson (England until 20, USA after 21)

Marcel De Jong (Netherlands)

Tesho Akindele (USA)

Teal Bunbury (USA)

 

Not born in Canada (Meets 50% residency requirement at time of first cap)

Simeon Jackson (Jamaica)

Kenny Stamatopoulos (Greece)

Dejan Jakovic (Croatia)

Iain Hume (Scotland)

Manjrekar James (Dominica)

Sam Adekugbe (England)

Daniel Stanese (USA)

Kianz Froese (Cuba)

Manny Aparicio (Argentina)

Stefan Cebara (Croatia)

Randy Samuel (Trinidad & Tobago)

Lyndon Hooper (Guyana) [Would be eligible for Canada at age 22]

Alex Bunbury (Guyana)

Ali Gerba (Cameroon)

 

Not born in Canada, Does not meet Residency

Milan Borjan (Croatia/Serbia)

Pedro Pacheco (Portugal)

Keven Aleman (Costa Rica)

Randy Edwini-Bonsu (Ghana)

Tomasz Radzinski (Poland)

Asmir Begovic (Bosnia)

Marc Bircham (England)

 

Defectors with only Canadian options

Owen Hargreaves

Jacob Lensky

Daniel Fernandes

Marco Bustos

Steven Vitoria

Jonathan de Guzman [Would actually probably have just waited until 24 to play with Dutch regardless]

Caolan Lavery

Sydney Leroux

Ricard Ferreira

 

So what do people think? Would a system like this be better than now? Would it be worth it to lose guys like Borjan and Radz? And potential like Aleman?

 

Anyone else have any ideas of what could be better than now? Probably anything

[Redcoatsforever]

I think the notion that immigrants wouldn't be allowed to represent Canada as Canadians is pretty much antithetical to our culture. Yeah, the current rules let some people opportunistically jump ship to other countries, but suppose that instead of England a guy like Whoregreaves had opted for Wales, saying that he identified with the Welsh culture and considered himself a Welshman. If their country wants him, and he wants to be one of them, why should anybody have the right to say "you're not Welsh"?

[David C.]

I agree that something of that nature would be a huge improvement over the current system, although I would cap the residency qualification as the country one resided the longest by the age of 18 (at the age of 18, your eligibility options would be frozen). Applications for exception could only be made for political refugees but may open up inconsistant reviews.

 

The main thing is to get rid of eligibility solely based through parents/grandparents and eligibility based on deGuzman's situation (residency solely based on moving to a foreign club).

[deschamp86]

I think the notion that immigrants wouldn't be allowed to represent Canada as Canadians is pretty much antithetical to our culture. Yeah, the current rules let some people opportunistically jump ship to other countries, but suppose that instead of England a guy like Whoregreaves had opted for Wales, saying that he identified with the Welsh culture and considered himself a Welshman. If their country wants him, and he wants to be one of them, why should anybody have the right to say "you're not Welsh"?

 

It doesn't really stop immigrants from playing for Canada, but it DOES limit it to those that were likely to have come here for non-footballing reasons as can be seen by Hume, Jackson etc.

 

Instead of waiting on a Brazilian mercenary such as Camilo to be our saviour

[Redcoatsforever]

I don't think we'll see the rules loosened at all, but while the current rules have their flaws I think they're the fairest possible setup. I'd rather be pissed off at mercenaries who abandoned us than have to tell a guy like Borjan that he's not allowed to be one of us.

[tmcmurph]

I'd be in favour of a "right of first refusal" system. The country that you lived in the longest has the right of first refusal.

[Footscray]

I agree that nationality rules need to be fixed asap.  The biggie for me is getting rid of the ancestry rules... way too many plastic nationals out there with their parents living vicariously through them playing for countries they've been to once on summer holidays or worse... never even set foot in.

[finchster]

De Guzman wouldn't be eligible for Canada. He renounced his citizenship to obtain Dutch and lived there since he was 12. He was only eligible to play for Holland 

[Footscray]

I think his proposed rules are birth or residency for half your life but doesn't say anything about a passport... JDG2 was born in Canada.

[deschamp86]

De Guzman wouldn't be eligible for Canada. He renounced his citizenship to obtain Dutch and lived there since he was 12. He was only eligible to play for Holland 

 

I wasn't really going into that much detail, I was basing it more off of birthplace and residency

[tmcmurph]

This is why I like the right of first refusal for the country you have lived in the longest. Leave at 12 and turn into a star in some other country you wait until you are 24 if you want to play for your new country. The later you leave for another country the longer you wait. You can still play but your country of longest residence would have ROFR.

[ray]

I agree that nationality rules need to be fixed asap.  The biggie for me is getting rid of the ancestry rules... way too many plastic nationals out there with their parents living vicariously through them playing for countries they've been to once on summer holidays or worse... never even set foot in.

 

I agree.  In the modern world players have enough opportunity to become "naturalized" without resorting to ancestry rules. Or FIFA should at least insist that if you use ancestry, you have to have the passport of the country for which you play.  That would cut down on a lot of the silliness.

 

I think the CSA should organize a group of nations to lobby for changes from FIFA.  Would USA and Australia be interested?  At least try to force FIFA to justify the ancestry rules in view of the fact 1) they benefit nations that had no role in developing a player and 2) they tend to benefit nations with current or previous high emmigration levels at the expense of those with high immigration - for what reason?.

[finchster]

I agree.  In the modern world players have enough opportunity to become "naturalized" without resorting to ancestry rules. Or FIFA should at least insist that if you use ancestry, you have to have the passport of the country for which you play.  That would cut down on a lot of the silliness.

 

I think the CSA should organize a group of nations to lobby for changes from FIFA.  Would USA and Australia be interested?  At least try to force FIFA to justify the ancestry rules in view of the fact 1) they benefit nations that had no role in developing a player and 2) they tend to benefit nations with current or previous high emmigration levels at the expense of those with high immigration - for what reason?.

You need to be a citizen of a nation to play for them, 

 

 

I wasn't really going into that much detail, I was basing it more off of birthplace and residency

 

Problem with that is most nations around the world do not base citizenship on being born in their country. Where you were born is not as important as who you parents and grand parents are 

[One American]

This is why I like the right of first refusal for the country you have lived in the longest. Leave at 12 and turn into a star in some other country you wait until you are 24 if you want to play for your new country. The later you leave for another country the longer you wait. You can still play but your country of longest residence would have ROFR.

 

Giving the power to the national associations would be a mess. Imagine Poland and Germany, for instance.

 

I would guess that Canada gains as much as it loses from poaching American residents and others with Canadian birth or heritage. Will Johnson, Ethan Finlay, Tesho Akindele, and shouldabeen Teal Bunbury. The current rules are designed to let players from smaller countries return to those country's national team if they earlier try to latch on with a bigger team.

[maccaliam]

Giving the power to the national associations would be a mess. Imagine Poland and Germany, for instance.

I would guess that Canada gains as much as it loses from poaching American residents and others with Canadian birth or heritage. Will Johnson, Ethan Finlay, Tesho Akindele, and shouldabeen Teal Bunbury. The current rules are designed to let players from smaller countries return to those country's national team if they earlier try to latch on with a bigger team.

3 of those 4 have never represented our MNT. How is that an example of how much we gain compared to what we lose?

[TOcanadafan]

I totally agree with the OP as I'm sure most of us do. However, we all know FIFA's motivation is MONEY and NOT FAIR PLAY. With this in mind, they want all the best players at their FIFA World Cup Moneyspinner and don't give a flying puck about ensuring players can't defect to a country where they have a tenuous connection at best. On the contrary, I fully expect the eligibility rules to be LOOSENED in the near future. After all, we didn't get to see Ibrahimovic at this FIFA World Cup Moneyspinner, did we?

 

I think it boils down to what dsqpr says.  The current rules do allow for a greater number of countries to field competitive teams.  Look at Algeria (almost entirely made up of born and raised French players), and Bosnia as prime examples, and to a lesser extent the US.  Unfortunately, Canada gets screwed by the current rules and I don't think there's much we can do about it.  And I also agree that if anything, the rules will loosen - we could have had Ibrahimovic play for Croatia this past world cup haha.

[Trillium]

I think you could change the regulations as follows.

1. A youth player under eighteen who is developed in his birth country and has not moved to a second country by his or her 18th birthday is tied to his /her birth country.

2. A youth player who moves before his/her 18th birthday may play for the new country after obtaining citizenship and having resided for three years in the country after transfer is registered with FIFA. The players birth country federation will be eligible for financial compensation from the receiving federation on a schedule to be determined by FIFA. Such schedule to include incremental payments for appearance in qualifying events and World cup finals.

3. Players who are defined as refugees under the UN conventions are to be treated as nationals of the admitting county. No compensation will be paid to birth country for such players.

Such a change rewards exporting national associations, and preserves ability of a person to move to a new country to be a representative player on national sides.

[finchster]

I think you could change the regulations as follows.

1. A youth player under eighteen who is developed in his birth country and has not moved to a second country by his or her 18th birthday is tied to his /her birth country.

2. A youth player who moves before his/her 18th birthday may play for the new country after obtaining citizenship and having resided for three years in the country after transfer is registered with FIFA. The players birth country federation will be eligible for financial compensation from the receiving federation on a schedule to be determined by FIFA. Such schedule to include incremental payments for appearance in qualifying events and World cup finals.

3. Players who are defined as refugees under the UN conventions are to be treated as nationals of the admitting county. No compensation will be paid to birth country for such players.

Such a change rewards exporting national associations, and preserves ability of a person to move to a new country to be a representative player on national sides.

In Europe, being born in a country doesn't mean you are a citizen of that country, ancestry maters unfortunately. 

[Trillium]

In Europe, being born in a country doesn't mean you are a citizen of that country, ancestry maters unfortunately.

FIFA makes it's own rules on eligibility, what I suggested was FIFA would take birth location as starting point, then deal migration.