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Guest firetotheworks

The lines are totally blurred, but imo the whole question of nationality should be as weighted within your cultural upbringing as it is with genetics.

 

I don't think place of birth should really come into it at all if you've been brought up elsewhere. Even though I think each case should be reviewed in itself, 19 is clearly taking the absolute piss.

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As long as people make the decision for the right reasons, they identify with the country for whatever reason, then I don't think anything else matters. The feelings of the individual are everything.

 

The problem is that we need to stop, for example, Qatar assembling a team of foreigners because they pay the most, or people picking a country because they're better. That's hard to solve.

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Guest firetotheworks

I don't know? One of my best friends is a Cuban that fled the country when he was 22. He considers himself to be Spanish now, this is the country that welcomed him, that gave him a job, etc...

 

People get too hung up with nationality, imho.

 

I wouldn't tell someone what nationality they are in the same way that I wouldn't tell a grown up transvestite that they're not a woman. That doesn't change my views on it though and I think saying 'people get too hung up on nationality' is totally right, but only outside of the context of a competition where the entire premise is based upon each nation vs the other.

 

Without that it renders the entire competition totally pointless. I don't think you should be able to adopt a culture in your adult life and deny your genetics and the culture that you've grown up in for over 20 years, even if it feels wrong, or unfair, or if you want to forget all about it. Within society I wouldn't question it, but when it comes to representing a country in sport, it really does imo.

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As long as people make the decision for the right reasons, they identify with the country for whatever reason, then I don't think anything else matters. The feelings of the individual are everything.

 

The problem is that we need to stop, for example, Qatar assembling a team of foreigners because they pay the most, or people picking a country because they're better. That's hard to solve.

 

And until we can probe footballers' minds (I'm sure that Costa will come with some pretty convincing language about Spain being the country that gave him a chance as a footballer if he ends up chosing us), we can only set some rules for all. The 5-year rule does a pretty good job of filtering out the most blatant cases, imho, like what used to happen with Qatar.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'm not at all for letting the individual just decide like.

As long as people make the decision for the right reasons, they identify with the country for whatever reason, then I don't think anything else matters. The feelings of the individual are everything.

 

The problem is that we need to stop, for example, Qatar assembling a team of foreigners because they pay the most, or people picking a country because they're better. That's hard to solve.

 

Nah, you can't exactly account for someone's feelings and everyone can lie. Imo it should be either your genetics, or your cultural upbringing up to a limit of (imo) age 15. You move from Brazil to Spain at the age of 16? Tough, you're Brazilian. Otherwise it's too difficult to tell and people can and will lie about the country that they have a 'feeling' for.

 

EDIT: I should also add that I'm only really talking with the context of the country that you represent in sport. Otherwise it renders the reason for competition pointless.

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Without that it renders the entire competition totally pointless. I don't think you should be able to adopt a culture in your adult life and deny your genetics and the culture that you've grown up in for over 20 years, even if it feels wrong, or unfair, or if you want to forget all about it. Within society I wouldn't question it, but when it comes to representing a country in sport, it really does imo.

 

I can totally dig that. I don't believe in nationalism at all, except when it comes to sport. Let's have one big melting pot in the "real world" but, if I had my way, people like Josip Simunic, Ante Seric and Joey Didiluca (who were born in Australia, played junior and professional football in Australia and received taxpayers money to help them become better footballers) who then played for Croatia should be executed for treason.

 

Or at least have their Australian passports revoked :lol:

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I think KI's suggestion about limiting the age that you can 'adopt' a country is the closest we'll get to a rule that works. The 5-year thing is fine, but it should have to be 5 years before a certain age. Maybe 18, to give leeway to people who move countries in their early teens.

 

But then you have the complication of players who have a passport for their new country but can't represent them in football. Guess no rule will be perfect.

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Those three players had a Croatian passport thanks to their parents/grandparents, and FIFA rules say there's nothing wrong with what they did. Fine, it's legal, and I'm sure they were proud to represent their daddy's or granddaddy's country but, seriously, fuck them all.

 

Totally different to the Diego Costa case, but I'm mad as hell and sounding off :lol:

 

EDIT: There used to be rules related to nationality and junior representation - but these were relaxed and players like Tim Cahill and Frederic Kanoute benefited. So FIFA has gone the other way...

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Those three players had a Croatian passport thanks to their parents/grandparents, and FIFA rules say there's nothing wrong with what they did. Fine, it's legal, and I'm sure they were proud to represent their daddy's or granddaddy's country but, seriously, fuck them all.

 

Totally different to the Diego Costa case, but I'm mad as hell and sounding off :lol:

 

EDIT: There used to be rules related to nationality and junior representation - but these were relaxed and players like Tim Cahill and Frederic Kanoute benefited. So FIFA has gone the other way...

 

It's a free for all now, they even got rid of U-21 and full friendly caps locking you which had been in place for years. Since then there's been a spate of older players switching countries in their twilight years after being unable to previously (Shola as an example).

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Nationality is also about identity and where you feel you belong. There are some cases whereby a player should be allowed to play for a different country than where he was born, and some cases where they shouldn't be allowed. Hard to generalise and say let's cut it out entirely.

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