New Rule

[Jock Strap]

Do you agree with the new rule that now allows countries to pick players who have been educated in their country for more than 5 years?

[Hume]

I do like the fact it relates to a number of years a player had been educated in a particular country as this in itself requires residence in that country from a relatively young age.

However, this would still allow someone to come to Scotland at 13 and play for the national team at 18. I'm not sure I'm entirely in agreement with that. Thirteen years in another country is way more than enough time to develop a strong bond with the country of birth.

Some time ago, probably on the Nacho Novo thread, I stated the age a player arrived in Scotland should be more like three. I realise that is probably too far to the other extreme, paritcularly when reading the case of Islam Feruz who arrived here age seven. Ignoring ability, by the time he is realistically ready, age wise, for the full team he will have lived here for 11/12 years.

I believe he already considers himself Scottish and his last seven years will no doubt have had a greater impact on him than his first so I do accept the new rule works in some cases. That feeling is only likely to grow the longer he lives here.

I don't want to see it abused though by players who use it as a means of becoming intrnationalists for one country simply because they are not good enough for their own.

Of course, in FIFA's eyes citizenship is enough to enable someone to play for whoever they like, regardless of residence, bloodline or education. The four UK associations are a special case are Scotland, England, Wales and NI all play under the one passport.

There will always be individual cases to support a rule or make it look silly but above all the most important thing should be the preservation of international football and I'm not sure I like the way FIFA are going with this.

We already have the ability to put Scots, English, Brazilian, Italian and French players in the same team. Man United do it ant its called club football.

[bud]

aye danny fox he is pure scottish

[hoochykoochy]

I think it's about time that Fifa / Uefa moved with the times. In Cricket, Rugby, Athletics, Tennis, Bowls and just about every other sport I can think of, this rule is applied in some shape or form.

For some reason we are very protective of football because everybody thinks it's their national sport! I believe most national team supporters would prefer their teams to be all first line heredetary scots, but I'll bet if Pele or Maradona scored the winning goal for Scotland in the world cup final, I doubt anyone would complain!