The Official Soccer/Football/Futbol/Calcio thread

[Lumpold]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

Messi, and many others playing in EU, use their ancestry BS to claim whatever place they feel like as their own. Hargreaves, for example, claims English citizenship, for example, since his grandparents (or whoever) came from England who knows when. Same for Messi and a ton of other Argentine and Brazilian players who claim Italian or Portuguese roots for one reason or another.

I am all for the 6/5 rule, but unless FIFA/UEFA change this STUPIDITY with fake naturalization claims, they should not in any way insist on the rule. Clean up your own house first. I know same rule is used in Olympics and that's why half of what used to be USSR sportsmen are now playing all over the world. Poland has a Brazilian born player on its national team, another Brazilian got Russian citizenship in recent years to do the same. Its stupid and sports committees really need to clean up the rules first.

If this rule passes, I am taking ALL bets that all the nations will then quickly issue citizenship to whoever needs one to ply their trade there. It is done now anyway, on a small scale, but if FIFA/UEFA want to expedite matters, then they will only open a Pandorra's Box and make the situation even worse.

Unfortunately, like I said, a ruling called the Kolpak Ruling has made it impossible for UEFA to address the problem - There are a bucket load (like 40) countries covered by the ACP Treaty (Between African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the EU) that means as we have a free trade agreement with them, to limit the number of their nationals who can play on a sports team would, apparently, be breaking this treaty.

As for the repatriation of players for national team purposes... well, this has been happening for years... most countries have a specific amount of time for naturalisation - 5 years residence gives a passport, and this is all FIFA wants from people playing on a national team - either a passport or a grandparent.

[Jason]

It's a new world order. Welcome to Earth. Not sure how I feel about that

eh. I don't really care.