11/21/24
March 15, 2002
National Teams?: Looks like Poland has started a trend among National Soccer teams with the citizenship of Emanuelle Olisadebe. I don't know if this is a good thing. Players representing countries should at least have been born there, or have some kind of familial ties to the country they play for. Now Japan has 3 Brazilians playing for their National team! Whats up with that?!
posted by StarFucker to soccer at 03:32 PM - 4 comments
For a better discussion of the situation, check out this piece.
posted by tieguy at 08:13 PM on March 15, 2002
This happens a lot with many a players from varying countries of origin. Ultimately the best way to secure the services of any player for your national team is simply having them play for you at an official game for the national team ( what constitues an official game is questionable ). That way, the player in question cannot play for another country ever ( correct me if i'm wrong on the ever bit ).
posted by Zool at 12:04 AM on March 18, 2002
Ridiculous. I have no problem with dual citizenship. Naturalization, however, is a definite problem. I think a player should first have to declare his intentions to become a citizen of another country, and then he would be ineligible for play in any "official" game for 4 years. That keeps countries from what is essentially stealing players from another country to better their team fo the next world cup.
posted by Samsonov14 at 06:36 PM on March 18, 2002
I think incorperating good players on a team is fine reguardless of whether if they were born in their host country or not. However, everything in moderation and i believe there should be a quota ... like no more than 30% foreign players or something. Otherwise, the team won't REALLY represent it's country.