What nationality are you? Or more importantly which nation can you play for?

I read a recent article in World Soccer, one of my favorite soccer publications, that covered a recent change in the rules regarding players and national teams. In the recent past players had the ability to change national teams, up to their 21st birthday, if they had not yet started for the Senior National team in what is considered an "official" match.

The new language:

"Change of association (art. 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes)
58% of the Congress members approved an amendment to the current article. So far, players eligible to change associations in order to play for another national team could only do so until their 21st birthday. The Congress has now decided to lift this age limit, but has maintained all the other provisions of art. 18."

Of course this allows players much more freedom to decide later on whether they want to switch national teams. The thesis of the article, which I tend to agree with, is that it will make African national teams that much stronger. For the most part I believe that to be true. You already see players such as Meghni and Bassong who both were developed at Clairfontaine, played for the France youth national teams, in the case of Meghni, winning the 2001 U17 World Championships with France, and who have now switched their national team allegiances to nations their parents came from but where I doubt they have spent more than "tourism" time in.

Players should be allowed to switch their national team allegiance, within reason. Why? Because in the modern world we live in players, families, people are no longer anchored to one nation for their entire lives. Players themselves might move to two or three different nations during their playing careers, spend more years in country than they do their native land. FIFA should allow the players to make the choice of which nation they want to represent. However it is up to FIFA to make clear how a player can qualify for a nation. This is where FIFA must be strict and must enforce the rules. Otherwise we will start seeing national teams being "bought." To me the rules should be simple:

• If the player's parents carry a passport or were born in a country you can play for that nation.
• If the player was born in a nation he is eligible.
• If a player has played or lives in a nation a specific amount of time, long enough to acquire that nation's citizenship via normal process (so no fast tracking as had happened with olympic skaters and other atheletes)

In the end, it is the player who needs to want to play for a specific nation. Freddy Adu opted for the US over his native Ghana, Pat Vieira played for France even though he was born in Dakar, Rossi was born in New Jersey (a few towns away from Sam!) but wanted to go play for his father's homeland of Italy, Neven Subotic lived and played college footie in America but wanted to play for Serbia, Deco and Eduardo are 2 more well know Brazilians who could not break into the famous national side so opted to adopt the European nation where they were plying their trade (Portugal and Croatia respectively) the list goes on. None of these players' decisions need be scrutinized (although Keano famously yelled at Vieira that he should have played for his native country...). If a player feels a draw towards another nation, and has the right according to FIFA to play for that nation than so be it.

Least we forget that in early times players would switch senior sides, usually due to political upheaval in their original nation - the Italian team that won their first world cup received much help from Argentines (players such as Guaita and Orsi had already played a number of games for their native Argentina before headlining Italy's world cup title), Puskas who lead the famous Flying Magyars (I would argue that Hungarian team might be the best team never to win a World Cup...hmmm I smell a blog post subject for later) played for Spain (granted only 4 times) after he escaped communist Hungary. Obviously as the game grew as well as the money, FIFA and other governing bodies recognized that they needed to put in place rules to avoid having players end up showcasing for two different nations in World Cups or other tournaments.

The game has come a long way from the 1930s with regards to determining which nation a player can represent. Removing the time limits on when a player needs to decide is a good move. However FIFA and the governing bodies must continue to monitor and enforce the rules. As nations such as Qatar and Equatorial Guinea cannot be allowed to simply buy players from other nations to give themselves a leg up against their opponents. FIFA cannot allow nations to go out and spend money to blatantly purchase talented players...countries such as Qatar should spend their sport's money on developing youth programs for players and coaches, upgrading facilities, and putting resources into the programs to develop and nurture home grown talent.

The world we live is grows more culturally diverse every day, the modern world allows greater freedom of travel, work and living. Nations such as France, England, Germany, the United States, to name a few, have had tremendous influxes of immigrants from a variety of nations. If talented players emerge from these groups the player needs to be able to decide what nation they want to represent and not be forced to make a decision by 21.