Tim Cahill

[the ox]

Does anyone remember a couple of years ago when he was supposed to play for us, but couldn't as he's played for Western Samoa U20's? How come he ended up playing for Australia, and not us?

[dynamo kerry]

looks like he just wanted to go to a world cup and as soon as oz asked him to play he jumped at the chance

[the ox]

He has Irish grandparents. He threatened to bring FIFA to court in 2002 cos they said he couldn't play for us. But surely he was good enough for Australia then. Why us then but them now?

[Fr. Murphy]

As far as I remember Tim Cahill's brother had been playing for the west Samoan islands and when they were playing a qualifier they needed some players to make up the squad. The brother said it to the Samoan manager that his brother was quite a handy player and so Tim was called up at the age of 14. Years later when he could think for himself he decided that he wanted to play for Australia. So he brought his cause to FIFA and won which paved the way for the rule change that was brought in this year.

[tetsujin1979]

Didn't he play just to get a free flight to Samoa to see his grandmother, who was sick at the time?

[dynamo kerry]

Didn't he play just to get a free flight to Samoa to see his grandmother, who was sick at the time?

thats it exactly

he played about 20 minutes and 6 years later said publicly he wanted to play for ireland when we were in our run-up to the WC. He stated that the aussie FA had no problem with him playing for Ireland (grandparent rule) as he wasn't in their set up at the time and hadn't been ever. IT was clear he wanted to play for ireland and that he was taking fifa to task about it.

when he missed his chance with ireland he has since returned to oz. he' s been playing for them for over a year.

[Sheridan]

More or less the entire story has been pieced together on this thread, so just to fill in the blanks...

Cahill made a substitute appearance for Samoa in an Under-17 World Cup qualifier when he was just fourteen years of age, having been assured that this would not affect his future eligibility at senior international level. He claims to have played only as a means of visiting his grandmother, who was ill.
Several years later, he was ruled inelligible to represent Australia because of this appearance.

He later expressed a desire to represent Ireland in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup and threatened to take FIFA to court.

[brine3]

So if FIFA had changed the rule earlier he'd be playing for Ireland...