It was special dispensation, really.It's not about Motta playing for Italy, it was the fact that he had been capped by Brazil already, imagine Arteta was capped by Spain, then decided to switch nationalities and play for England, should that be allowed?
Yes, but by having a limit you're acknowledging that they're not actually English thus nullifying the entire point of national teams.
The current rules are fine, we just seem to take advantage of it less than most other teams.
The point of the limit is that the focus would still remain on English players, and our countries development of players although using the odd player that could qualify for this rule could be used if they wanted to play for England, i.e. Arteta, Almunia, not that we would Almunia anywhere near the England team :$
Just look at the Portugal squad.
Deco - Brazilian
Pepe - Brazilian
Rolando - Cape Verde
Danny - Venezuelan
Nani - Cape Verde
Liedson - Brazilian
Yannick Djalo - Guinea - Bissau
Thats just Portugal, Germany have many players who were born in Turkey/Poland etc. Didnt see them moan when they brushed England and Argentina aside in the WC did we lol.
Add Ronaldo to that squad.. He was born in Madeira.
It's happened before. Alfredo Di Stéfano played for Spain, Argentina and even Colombia.It's not about Motta playing for Italy, it was the fact that he had been capped by Brazil already, imagine Arteta was capped by Spain, then decided to switch nationalities and play for England, should that be allowed?
It was special dispensation, really.
He'd only played two friendlies for Brazil seven years ago. I'm sure future judgements will be done on a case-by-case basis.
Article 18.1a stipulates that any player who wants to switch to the second of his dual nationalities must have held that second nationality at the time he represented his original country at junior or under-21 level.
Yeah, been looking it up and seen the rules are quite concrete, it's just that very few make the decision to switch.It's not this.... the rules are if your of dual nationality and you have not played in a competitive game for one of your nationalities then you have the choice to switch to the other one but once you make that choice you cannot turn back
Shaun Maloney is from Bangladesh but he plays for Scotland through his parents
Malaysia.
Shaun Maloney is from Bangladesh but he plays for Scotland through his parents.
It's happened before. Alfredo Di Stéfano played for Spain, Argentina and even Colombia.
Unless the rules have changed then arteta isn't even eligible to play for england.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8955046.stm