Nacho Nova

[The Hitman]

Well it appears I am not the only 1 talking "pish" as Scotland, England and Ireland are going to change the laws at their meeting in February. Novo to play against Holland in March?

Seems they would be breaking the law to keep the status quo!

[joe_ruesgen]

If someone moves to America from Scotland and then becomes an American citizen they may say to people they are American. Are they wrong?

As has just happened in my case, and no it is not wrong...'cos as Euan McGregor says in Trainspotting: "It's sh*te being Scottish."

Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding.

[the ice maiden]

You better watch yersel laddie, your auld auntie mite huv to gie ye a wee slap on Thursday

[petewick]

Well he played sh*te last night

[The modfather]

Well he played sh*te last night

he hardly got a chance to do otherwise

[Ship called Dignity]

What's your point Ship? Are you discriminating against someone just because of their bloodline? Fifa rules mean Novo would be eligible, just like the Elliotts and the Quashie's (who should never have worn the jersey because they weren't good enough.)

If it's discrimination then yes. If you care to read my posts again you'll see I've said from the start that I believe the rules are to play International Football you should either be born in that country or your parents should be from that country. Nice and simple.

Scotland and it's supporters have ideas WAY above their station as this thread demonstrates!

My view is not as a Scotland fan but as a fan of International football.

Just because Spain and Brazil have done it doesn't mean it is right and we should follow suit. Putting it simply if the trend continues we might as well kiss the end of Internation football. You'll find the "bigger" countries will buy their way in International Football.

Take say Chelsea and Arsenal for exmaple (in particular Arsenal) - perhaps a couple of finest youth academies/schemes of football in the world. So they go out and search the world for the best players at 12 and 13 years old and take them through the ranks. They make it to the top flight and continue to play for Arsenal. Hey presto they have a British passport and now can play for England. It could end in countries buying there way through International football.

Don't get me wrong if Messi was brought up in Scotland I wouldn't mind him wanting to play for Scotland but I'd rather not and for the reasons stated above.

[Sheik Yir Erse]

I take a slightly different view on this one. I think one of the reasons the "gentlemen's agreement" is there is to protect the interests of the 4 home nations. We are different from the other countries because we have 4 separate footballing identities covered by one single passport. Therefore in order for us to be seen to be different we introduce the grandparents rule. To be honest I'm perfectly happy with the grandparents rule, it's been stretched to breaking point a few times, but I don't think it's utterly ridiculous.

The rest of the world, as I understand it, work simply on the passport principle, hence Senna in Spain and Eduardo in Croatia examples, and the other 'naturalised' players, which is what Novo would be. I would not want to see us get rid of the bloodline rule, because then we'd be able to choose anyone with a British passport. So before you can say Sepp Blatter, anyone with a British passport can play for any British international side. "Wait a minute, surely that means that you just need one big team?"

Sorry Nacho, much as I admire your work ethic (and I'd quite like to see him coming off the bench in the last 15 minutes to annoy the hell out of a tired defence) for the future of the Scottish national side, it's a 'no' from me.

[petewick]

Well he played sh*te last night

he hardly got a chance to do otherwise

Nae excuse