That's the whole point and the reason this is a non issue. The term used is nationality not citensenship. We are interchanging the words as if they mean the same thing but they dont.
Citensenship exists within the broader church of nationality. All the fifa rules ask for is evidence of nationality which in this case is his mum and grandparents and the fact that at any point in his life up to the day he died he can get an Irish passport . So he 100 per cent passes the nationality test.
The argument that he wasn't registered as an Irish citizen and had no passport at the age of 16 when he played for Luxembourg is irrelevant to the requirement to show irish nationality as at the age of 16 he had an Irish mum and Irish grandparents. It would be different and more difficult if the rules said citensenship instead of nationality but they dont.
Even on a practical basis why would a 16 year old have 3 passports or have gone to the bother to realise that you need to register for your citensenship in Ireland it would be totally unjust and clearly this is the reason the rule does not say citensenship.
So all he needs to prove nationality and the lifelong entitlement in Irish law to gain citensenship and then a passport is ne of his grandparents birthcerts(let's not even bother bringing his mum into it for simplicity).
Citensenship exists within the broader church of nationality. All the fifa rules ask for is evidence of nationality which in this case is his mum and grandparents and the fact that at any point in his life up to the day he died he can get an Irish passport . So he 100 per cent passes the nationality test.
The argument that he wasn't registered as an Irish citizen and had no passport at the age of 16 when he played for Luxembourg is irrelevant to the requirement to show irish nationality as at the age of 16 he had an Irish mum and Irish grandparents. It would be different and more difficult if the rules said citensenship instead of nationality but they dont.
Even on a practical basis why would a 16 year old have 3 passports or have gone to the bother to realise that you need to register for your citensenship in Ireland it would be totally unjust and clearly this is the reason the rule does not say citensenship.
So all he needs to prove nationality and the lifelong entitlement in Irish law to gain citensenship and then a passport is ne of his grandparents birthcerts(let's not even bother bringing his mum into it for simplicity).

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