National Team Eligibility

FIFA changed the statute relating to a player's eligibility to play for a national association, the new rule became effective on January 1, 2004.

We are all probably aware, that the prior rule tied a player to a country if they played in a "competitive" international at any age group.
It seems that now, a player only get's "tied" when it's a full A level international.

So... are there any players out there that Brian should target? Eg... Is the Kilgallen guy who has played for England at youth levels now eligible to play for us? ...I'm just using him as an example, I don't know his line of ancestry.

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Originally posted by cclinton
So... are there any players out there that Brian should target?

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Irish players.

Hopefully no young NI players will take this route!

didn't Henry McStay (Leeds underage and Ireland) have under-16 caps or something for the North and then changed his allegiance after the whole Neil Lennon affair?

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Originally posted by nifan
Hopefully no young NI players will take this route!

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Yes but if they do don't start accusing us of robbing players.If they see the RoI as their natonal team then that's their choice and they'll obviously aspire to play for us.Anyway many nationalists refuse to recognise the state of Northern Ireland and playing for the country would be an automatic contradiction of this.

I think people are missing an important aspect of this rule change. As far as I'm aware, players "tied" to one country under the previous rules are only entitled to switch their allegiance if they held (dual) citizenship of the "new" country when they first played international football. In other words, mere eligibility for citizenship at that point isn't enough. If this is indeed the case, the benefits for Ireland would be very slim - how many of the British-born players in our squad had Irish passports before they became international footballers? (On the other hand, all those players would have held British passports, making them eligible to represent those nations, providing they haven't been fully capped by Ireland. If anything, this ruling could work against Ireland.)

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Originally posted by tetsujin1979
didn't Henry McStay (Leeds underage and Ireland) have under-16 caps or something for the North and then changed his allegiance after the whole Neil Lennon affair?

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Yes he did. Dunno if it was the lennon thing though.

Sher... are you sure?.... I doubt Kanoute had a Mali passport several years ago, but then again, maybe he did. Fortuitous.

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Originally posted by Beavis
Yes but if they do don't start accusing us of robbing players.If they see the RoI as their natonal team then that's their choice and they'll obviously aspire to play for us.Anyway many nationalists refuse to recognise the state of Northern Ireland and playing for the country would be an automatic contradiction of this.

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We get a bit annoyed when players come through our youth, attend our courses and are snapped up who wouldn be?
Like when one of our kids was called up to a ROI youth squad when he was at a training camp with our youth squad.
Or when Chris Baird was called a couple of days before he made his full debut for us - after having played for us at youth levels for years.

I think you would be a bit annoyed if something similar had happened to any england born youth you have.

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Originally posted by cclinton
Sher... are you sure?.... I doubt Kanoute had a Mali passport several years ago, but then again, maybe he did. Fortuitous.

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He is entitled by law to have had one at that stage.
I think its against players who become naturalised, like duff having lived in England long enough to get a british passport if he wanted.

There's some clarification on the FIFA web site @
Fifa Naturalization rule

Being eligible for dual citizenship at the time of first game is required.. and many countries have different legalities in the area of recognition of citizenship, so this could be somewhat country dependent.

Here's the FIFA wording:- he has not played at “A” international level for the Association for which he is eligible at the time he submitted the request; - he had dual nationality (or more than two nationalities), at the time of his first appearance in an international match in an official competition of any category. Therefore, this provision does not apply to any players who have been naturalised after having already represented one Association. Consequently, FIFA has rejected the request submitted by Murat Mogomedov, a Russian player but now a naturalised Israeli, as he has already played for Russia.

After 2004 only players u-21 can apply for the change and it can only be done once. 2004 is a transitional year.

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Yes he did. Dunno if it was the lennon thing though.

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Might not have been the Lennon affair, but I'm pretty sure sectarian abuse he got as a result of it played a pretty big part in him switching allegiances, there's a little about it here : http://www.soccernet.com/scotland/ne...adzedunfc.html right at the end of the page
Soccernet's not very reliable at the best of times though

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Originally posted by tetsujin1979
Might not have been the Lennon affair, but I'm pretty sure sectarian abuse he got as a result of it played a pretty big part in him switching allegiances, there's a little about it here : http://www.soccernet.com/scotland/ne...adzedunfc.html right at the end of the page
Soccernet's not very reliable at the best of times though

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No its not. There where rumblings of him moving before it happened as the ROI had been in touch with him (one of the times we complained about nicking players).
Maybe it was lennon that pushed the boat, or perhaps it was an excuse. I dont know.

Wasn't Saul Deeney another one? He's a young goalkeeper, last I heard he was on Notts County's books. Think he was born in Derry, not sure if he played for NI at any level, but I think he's definitely declared for us.