OzzieMandias

I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult. Btw I'm only 3 nations! As for representing another country, every situation is different. You have Ozil tonight for example, born in Germany to Turkish parents, and he represents Germany. Now by contrast you have Podolski and Klose who are Polish but raised in Germany from very young ages. Now some families that emigrate retain their culture, by only speaking their mother tongue at home for example. Now if you live in Germany but spend all your free time speaking Turkish or Polish then you may still feel a strong connection to that part of your heritage, so the idea of representing them is not entirely alien, when you consider that one of those parents may want you to represent their birth country, it's not quite as bad as is made out. You then have people who move to a country later in life and become bonded to that country, like Liedson, Deco, or Pepe of Portugal, if you qualify as a citizen of a country you can't really stop them representing that country, as they may feel a connection towards it. The problem you have is being sure of the validity of their claim, the best examples of that are Guerrero of Poland and some of the middle eastern nations with Brazilians in their side, it's sad that players will cheapen themselves by clinging to any nationality just to experience a major tournament, but to claim that a player is incapable of gaining a bond with a nation outside of the one in which they were born is slightly naive. Compliment, probably. I think you nailed it when you said every situation is different, which is what I said on an earlier page as to their being a large grey area for the most part. The differences in the situations means that trying to pin it down to certain rulings will be unfair on alot of people. For example ruling it on birthplace is plain wrong imo because for the likes of Klose, Podolski and even Terry Butcher for England (although that's slightly different due to few cultural/family ties to a place like Singapore) they will more than likely have no connection to the country they were born in. But then pinning it down to purely citizenship reasons opens up doors to all these Brazilians latching on to any team they can after merely living in the country a couple of years. There's also alot of losers when it comes to people going with their heritage rather than their place of birth/home - it works both ways. For example the likes of Australia, USA and Switzerland have been repeatedly screwed over by players who live their lives in the countries who welcomed them (or their parents) with open arms, educated them, gave them job oppurtunities and allowed them to become the players they are through facilities and coaching - only for them players to then ditch that country at the last moment when the manager of their 'blood' nation rings them up asking if they want a game. The Serbs/Croats/.. are often the biggest culprits when it comes to this, which while you may think is down to strong allegiances to their 'bloodline' is more than likely purely so they can have a better chance of achieving. That's why players from Albania (Behrami) who have a poorer national team will often go for the better option in their host country and players from Serbia/Croatia (Kuzmanovic, Rakitic) who have better teams will choose their heritage. It's sad in this case when it comes down to furthering careers rather than making a real emotional decision. It's definitely a very touchy subject though, and will only become moreso with the loosening of borders. Good post. The thing about the fluid borders and all the extended families of Polish/Czech and other European origin is that it really will get to the point that if they really researched it the Germans could be picking a team from the whole of Europe. That is really what I'm trying to get at.... You're really shit at getting your point across if that's what you've been trying to get at. Podolski: German striker Lukas Podolski won't be singing the national anthem on Wednesday before the much-awaited game against Poland. "It's a very special situation and quite a strange feeling when the Polish national anthem and then the German one rings out," Podolski said this week. It isn't as simple as you're trying to make out K. So? He lived a few years in Poland, and his parents are Polish. It's out of respect, doesn't necessarily make him feel any less German. Do you know Podolski personally? Why do you just want to jump to the worst possible conclusion? He didn't celebrate scoring against them either. Personally I would want a player singing the national anthem of the team he is playing for. That rules out pretty much all of the England squad, tbh.

Another farcical situation,I agree. Nothing new there, though. Basil D'Oliveira and Tony Grieg were playing for England 40 years ago.

Debate? It's just Parky being racist and throwing random insults around rather than trying to back up his viewpoint. How is it racist giving smaller african nations and former colonies a better chance at having stronger squads? Works both ways around, though (cf Boatengs). Some players with more than one option go for the wealthy land of immigration, others for the ancestral homeland.

Which ones? Boatengs. Bah!! 2 secs Ozzie

Which ones? Boatengs.

Aye but at the time Guadeloupe and New Caledonia weren't allowed into FIFA, being technically regions of a country rather than seperate nations alltogether. Didn't know that but anyway if you give the Germans an inch..... As a sign of Germany becoming more comfortable as a multicultural society, it is most definitely A Good Thing. Your getting this debate mixed up in your head with eye candy. That made absolutely fuck all sense.

Aye but at the time Guadeloupe and New Caledonia weren't allowed into FIFA, being technically regions of a country rather than seperate nations alltogether. Didn't know that but anyway if you give the Germans an inch..... As a sign of Germany becoming more comfortable as a multicultural society, it is most definitely A Good Thing.

I don't really give a shit where people are born, if they've spent almost all their life, or most of their life, in a country other than the one they happened to be born in, they should be able to represent that country because that's where they're from, even if they were born somewhere else. (Though I do only think this should apply until you reach a certain age, like you have to have settled in a country before you were 8 or 10 or something to be able to represent their football team. I don't like the country swapping going on when people have just lived in a country for five years as an adult.) Yeah but your from one of those non-countries so you can never understand. I personally would stick to a birth rule. Man, one of the best things the Greens managed to get through while they were in coalition was to change the German citizenship law so it was finally no longer based on "blood". I don't think Germany should be allowed to recruit promising kids from Poland, Czech, Russia etc. Which if they really wanted to push it they could the way the rules are now. They've been living in Germany since before they became footballers, that's doesn't seem to me like "recruiting". They feel German, they are German, of course they should represent Germany. We should have had Giggs in that case and now Bale and why not those who have played in the Pl for 10 years cause they qualify as well.....You see it starts to make a mockery. I believe Giggs had the choice.

Changing these rules would be doom for the Ireland team.

I don't really give a shit where people are born, if they've spent almost all their life, or most of their life, in a country other than the one they happened to be born in, they should be able to represent that country because that's where they're from, even if they were born somewhere else. (Though I do only think this should apply until you reach a certain age, like you have to have settled in a country before you were 8 or 10 or something to be able to represent their football team. I don't like the country swapping going on when people have just lived in a country for five years as an adult.) Yeah but your from one of those non-countries so you can never understand. I personally would stick to a birth rule. Man, one of the best things the Greens managed to get through while they were in coalition was to change the German citizenship law so it was finally no longer based on "blood".

Definitely find they lessen my interest in the minor games. If I'm not particularly rooting for someone and the game isn't up to much, then ending the damn drone sooner or later becomes a stronger imperative than continuing with the football.

I could hear a bit of crowd noise during the England game, even at one point a brief snatch of that brass band playing The Italian Job theme.

A friend of mine, only hearing the word on German commentary, thought they were called "Uwe Seelers". (Uwe Seeler being a famous German striker of old.)

Well, that was weird. Watching at home in Berlin near an open window, with enough time lag on an Internet stream that I could tell every time Germany was about to score by all the fireworks going off outside.

Is Lalas that ginger-haired tosser on EPSN? (Thought Gullit was all right yesterday.)

Talk of a vuvuzela ban. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8737455.stm

Always makes me laugh that all the England flags bear the names of crap small towns where there is no decent team to support.

Today I'm really torn between wanting Germany to lose and wanting Australia to lose.

Yeah, and we used to have Beckham, Scholes, Shearer etc. Four years is plenty of time for a new bunch to start coming good.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/06/world-cup-WAGs-slideshow-201006#slide=1

We started out both 1966 and 1990 with draws.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3158/102016654.jpg The moment where you suddenly realise that not only are literally tens of millions of people now going to think forever that you're a wanker, but also that you are, in fact, a wanker. Feel bad for the guy, honestly. One in a million mistake. Kind of mistake you simply should not be making at that level, though. That was the softest of soft goals. Howard, in contrast, had an excellent game.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3158/102016654.jpg The moment where you suddenly realise that not only are literally tens of millions of people now going to think forever that you're a wanker, but also that you are, in fact, a wanker.