Eligibility Rules, Okay

Was having a read of the Wiki page dedicated to FIFA's eligibility rules and found this bit on member associations sharing a common nationality interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_el...on_nationality

It's something I'd always wondered - the entire list of associations sharing common nationalities - and, according to the article, there are 26 associations who share a common nationality. They are:

• American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States and the US Virgin Islands, who all share American nationality;
• Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, England, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Turks & Caicos Islands and Wales, who all share British nationality;
• China, Hong Kong and Macau, who all share Chinese nationality;
• Denmark and the Faroe Islands, who both share Danish nationality;
• Aruba, Curaçao and the Netherlands, who all share Dutch nationality;
• and France and Tahiti, who both share French nationality.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Was having a read of the Wiki page dedicated to FIFA's eligibility rules and found this bit on member associations sharing a common nationality interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_el...on_nationality

It's something I'd always wondered - the entire list of associations sharing common nationalities - and, according to the article, there are 26 associations who share a common nationality. They are:

• American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States and the US Virgin Islands, who all share American nationality;
• Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, England, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Turks & Caicos Islands and Wales, who all share British nationality;
• China, Hong Kong and Macau, who all share Chinese nationality;
• Denmark and the Faroe Islands, who both share Danish nationality;
• Aruba, Curaçao and the Netherlands, who all share Dutch nationality;
• and France and Tahiti, who both share French nationality.

---

Pascal Vahirua and Marama Vahirua were both born in Tahiti. Both played for France (Pascal at senior, Marama at under-21) and, due to the modification to eligibility rules pertaining to under-21 representation, Marama became eligible to play for Tahiti, as we saw in last year's Confederations Cup.

The Denmark/Faroese one is most interesting. Has there been any player born on the Faroe Islands that has chosen to represent Denmark instead?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Olé Olé

The Denmark/Faroese one is most interesting. Has there been any player born on the Faroe Islands that has chosen to represent Denmark instead?

---

Of course, whilst any Faroese-born player will hold Danish citizenship, he would still have to satisfy at least one of the criteria outlined in regulation 6 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes in order to also be eligible for Denmark. Either a parent or grandparent would need to have been born in Denmark, or he would have to have resided continuously in Denmark for at least two years.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Was having a read of the Wiki page dedicated to FIFA's eligibility rules and found this bit on member associations sharing a common nationality interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_el...on_nationality

It's something I'd always wondered - the entire list of associations sharing common nationalities - and, according to the article, there are 26 associations who share a common nationality. They are:

• American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States and the US Virgin Islands, who all share American nationality;
• Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, England, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Turks & Caicos Islands and Wales, who all share British nationality;
• China, Hong Kong and Macau, who all share Chinese nationality;
• Denmark and the Faroe Islands, who both share Danish nationality;
• Aruba, Curaçao and the Netherlands, who all share Dutch nationality;
• and France and Tahiti, who both share French nationality.

---

And the reason why the IFA and FAI are not there, is because it's a one way street:)

I had a read of that section on FAI v IFA on that page for the first time and it's a very poorly written piece, i.e. until you get to the last paragraph which is in stark contrast to what went before, the quote from CAS in the Dan Kearns case, which clearly encapsulated the judgement.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/footb...-Sam-Gallagher

England trying to nab English-born, Scotland youth international and Southampton first-team player Sam Gallagher.

This seems to be occurring quite frequently with the FA these days. Michael Keane, Daniel Crowley and Patrick Bamford have all lined out for us first, only to be called up by England subsequently, with Jack Grealish subject to the FA's attention also.

What appears to be the trend is that we call up English-born players upon establishing their eligibility and the fact that they're with a decent academy. Due to the wide pool of English talent in these academies, it takes slightly more for the FA to call-up an academy player to their under-age set-up e.g. Jack Grealish and Daniel Crowley starring at Villa, Michael Keane playing regularly for Man United's reserves, Patrick Bamford becoming a first-team player at Nottingham Forrest (was probably only on the fringes when called up by England), Sean McGinty earning a transfer from Charlton to Man United- all garnering them the attention of the FA. It took the FA longer to act on Michael Keane than it did Will Keane (whom never appeared for Ireland), likely due to Michael's development while Will's career stalled due to injury.

If these players prefer to represent England than Ireland, I wish them all the best. But, it is always heart-warming when players shun the FA for Ireland (Tommie Hoban, Sean Murray, Ciaran Clark and, even in the past, Kevin Kilbane!).

Anyone know what's the story with Irish rugby internationals?

As in do they 'automatically' get an Irish passport?Or can play with a Brit.one too...
Also the cricket;can 'foreign nationals' play?

No, rugby doesn't require a player to have nationality of the country they represent. I'd imagine most of the Ulster national team players play on British passports. Cricket is the same as far as I know.

Can players qualify via concurrent residency alone or do they need to satisfy a set minimum period of residency?

Can you play cricket one on one if you really want to?

Today's Indy with a couple of articles on Janujaj and England

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...e-9127310.html


http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...d-9127312.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Can players qualify via concurrent residency alone or do they need to satisfy a set minimum period of residency?

---

What do you mean?

He means do they ever actually need to reside in the country maybe? I would say no. I could play for Ireland and i never spent more than 4 weeks there at a time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

No, rugby doesn't require a player to have nationality of the country they represent. I'd imagine most of the Ulster national team players play on British passports. Cricket is the same as far as I know.

---

That's only likely given there's no political jurisdiction called Ireland.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crosby87

He means do they ever actually need to reside in the country maybe? I would say no. I could play for Ireland and i never spent more than 4 weeks there at a time.

---

But you'd play for Ireland based on your Irish nationality which you did not acquire through residency but I'm guessing, through (grand)parents.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crosby87

He means do they ever actually need to reside in the country maybe? I would say no. I could play for Ireland and i never spent more than 4 weeks there at a time.

---

There are three ways to qualify to represent a country: by being born on its territory; by having a parent or grandparent who was born on its territory; or residing in its territory for 36 continuous months. There are a lot of Samoan and other Pacific Island internationals who would never have lived in their country of ancestry.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

That's only likely given there's no political jurisdiction called Ireland.

---

It's nothing to do with Ireland, it's just the rules of the sport. Most sports are even less fussy than that, like athletics. Soccer is probably the strictest.

I know Charlie. I was picking up on your point that Rugby some rugby players are playing for Ireland despite holding UK passports.

Also interestingly rugby is incredibly strict about switching. You can't.
Paul Warwick was tied to Australia due to a brief appearance in a 7s match. Never played for them after that.

I wish cricket was like that. Would give Irish players a second thought before playing for the ECB.

Rugby has only tightened up its rules since 2000 - before that you had guys like Brian Smith, who played a few times for Australia before moving to England and discovering an Irish granny.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

What do you mean?

---

I was wondering what minimum time period of continuous residence needed to be satisfied by a player in order for a he or she to be deemed eligible. I wasn't sure if mere residence in the relevant territory alone was enough to render a player eligible. I thought, maybe, that by a player simply living in Ireland, he or she might therefore have been eligible to play for the Irish rugby team. That's not the case though; as you outline in post #6075, the minimum requirement is a continuous 36 months.

Interesting article about the US success in finding foreign born players eligible for the US:

http://www.howlermagazine.com/foreign-aid/

The Belfast Telegraph... Still delivering comedy: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...-30015792.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chris Kilpatrick

Catholic manager Fenlon tipped to take over at Linfield

A Catholic football manager from the Republic of Ireland is the frontrunner for the top job at Irish League giants Linfield.

---