CHANGING
SIDES
Steve Menary examines the
changes to FIFA’s international
eligibility criteria
SPECIAL
REPORTSwitch...Wilfried
Zaha made his
England debut
in 2012 before
switching to
Ivory CoastP
layers have been switching
nationalities for decades but
until now, that decision had
to be taken early on.
In bigger countries, players who
had risen through the junior ranks
were left ruing that decision, as they
were squeezed out after winning the
odd senior cap and became lost to
the international game.
Using the rule that allows using
your grandparents as a qualification,
some of these disenfranchised players
could have switched to smaller
countries and had long international
careers, but not if they had a senior
cap in a competitive game.
As a result, FIFA has intervened.
Any player aged below 21 and with
no more than three senior caps can
now switch nationality. This includes
competitive matches, although not
appearances at major tournaments.
“The rule change is very good; it
gives options,” says Tom Saintfiet,
the Belgian coach of The Gambia.
“This makes it easy for players to
make a choice in the beginning
of their career and not have
second doubts or bad
feeling afterwards.