Something that crossed my mind...
This was FIFA's eligibility rule from 1962 until 2004:
"Any player who is a naturalised citizen of a country in virtue of that country’s laws shall be eligible to play for a national or representative team of that country."
In January of 2004, there was an amendment, and the main rule then read as follows:
"Any person holding the nationality of a country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of that country. The Executive Committee shall decide on the conditions of eligibility for any Player who has not played international football in accordance with par. 2 below, and either acquires a new nationality or is eligible to play for the teams of more than one Association due to his nationality."
Shortly after that (in March of 2004), FIFA tightened the rules for naturalised players to prevent this rule being exploited (after Qatar attempted to naturalised talented Brazilian footballers). CAS summarised the development quite well in the Daniel Kearns case, so I'll quote that:
In its Circular Letter No. 901, dated 19 March 2004, the FIFA explained to its member associations that the above provision appeared not to be operating satisfactorily as some players and associations tried to exploit to their advantage the apparent latitude of its first paragraph. In particular it was reported that a number of Brazilian players intended to assume the Qatari nationality in order to be eligible to play for the Qatari association. In this context, the FIFA informed its member associations of the following:
“The first sentence of Article 15 par. 1 (…) means that if a player has never played for a national team, he may assume another nationality and play for the national team of the new country, irrespective of his age. However, this basic provision does not expressly provide for players being able to play without any impediment, for another national team for no obvious reason. If a player changes his nationality or if he accepts another nationality simply in order to be able to play for new national team, he is clearly breaching Article 2(e) of the FIFA statutes (…)
(…) on 16 March 2004, the FIFA Emergency Committee ruled as follows:
1. Any player who refers to the first sentence of Article 15, paragraph 1 (…) to assume a new nationality shall only be eligible to play for the new national team if he fulfils one of the following conditions:
a) the player was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
b) his biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
c) his grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
d) he has lived continuously for at least two years on the territory of the relevant Association.
2. The decision outlined in point 1 above enters into force immediately (…)”.
These criteria eventually became article 17 of FIFA's eligibility regulations, which is now article 7.
So, the questions I'd been pondering:
i) Did Qatar only attempt to naturalise talented footballers from elsewhere after the January 2004 rule-change and, if so, why?
ii) Why didn't Qatar try naturalising talented Brazilians before the January 2004 rule-change, considering the rule then in place explicitly permitted naturalisations?
iii) Did the January 2004 rule-change trigger something?
iv) Was it common for naturalisations of convenience (or naturalisations on football grounds, in other words) to occur before 2004 and, if not, why not?
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