I surely can’t be the only one who thinks that the world of international football is on the verge of going into complete madness with the possibility of yet more foreign involvement with national teams seemingly just around the corner.
A lot of the chat in this country around the legislation has centred on the possibility of Rangers striker Nacho Novo turning out in the dark blue of Scotland, after the Spaniard publicly voiced his desire to do so if the laws were changed to allow it.
This sort of thing has been talked about for many years now but I never actually thought I’d see the day when it would happen. I just could never get my head around the logic of a country being represented by people who weren’t actually from there, and I still don’t.
I had a good rant some months ago about the number of foreign managers in charge of countries all around the world, and although I think that it’s bad enough having arguably the main man when it comes to the national side not being from the country in question, introducing foreign players on top of that is taking things a big step further, and for me would completely devalue tournaments like the World Cup and the European Championships.
Let’s just say for argument’s sake that the law gets passed, and as a result Scotland take advantage of it by acquiring five or six genuinely world class players who make them a force again (not likely but this is hypothetical). Could we seriously then say that this was Scotland who had a great team? No chance. Even if we won the World Cup I’d still feel like it was somewhat devalued, as it simply wouldn’t have been a genuine Scotland team who had won it. The whole point of the international game is to allow people from different countries to compete against each other, not WITH each other!
I’d also take a similar view if England were to ever win the World Cup under Fabio Capello. So far he’s taken players that an English manager could previously not get the best from and is currently getting results from them – fair play to him for doing a good job of course, but he’s Italian, and that surely means that anything that England achieve whilst he’s there in that capacity has not been acquired by a truly English set-up. Disagree? OK, how would you feel if Capello then starting picking a few young superstars from Portugal, Spain and Italy to play in his midfield and attack at the next World Cup – would you still say that it was England?
I really hope that those running the game stop for a moment to consider where they may be taking us. I’m all for new laws being brought in to keep the game ‘current’, but this is surely just absolute nonsense. I can just about handle stories like ‘Novo for Scotland’ on April 1, but on any other day of the year they can, for want of an infinitely better expression, ram it!
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Well said, MrH.
i agree stockport
It’s always important to get things like that out of the system!
Well Mr H, I do agree with the idea that national teams should be national i.e., players should have a definite connection with the country, preferable a blood connection. There is for me two sides to this debate one is where the national teams are trying to up there squad by taking on good foreign players after they choose to become British nationals to play for the team. This sounds like cheating to me (much like the quite a few countries did in the Olympics!) The second part doesn?t feel as clear cut. We are now living in a world that is much more mobile than it was 20 years ago, as more people are from mixed decent. It feels to me that Scotland has only recently joined the rest of the world when it comes to this sort of immigration. Scotland felt much more homogenous when I moved here 10 years ago, but all of this raises the question about when someone becomes a true Scott. Are they Scottish enough when one parent is Scottish and they are born here (Berra)? Are they Scottish enough if they are born here and none of the parents are Scottish (e.g. English/ Welsh/ German/ Turkish)? Or can they become Scottish enough if they have stayed here since the age of 13 (Driver)? Or to make it even more complicated, the parent(s) are Scots, but the person has never lived in the country? What we suddenly are looking at is genetics versus socialisation and this is a tricky place to be. I for one believe that you have to have clear rules around this sort of thing, what?s the point of having national team?s otherwise? What I hope for is well thought through clear rules, adapted to a modern world, but without opening the flood gates for the likes of Novo only changing nationality to get a place in the national team i.e., cheating!
Now that fellt like a rant…
FSA has decided for now to continue with the bloodline route leaving the likes of Driver who genuinely wants to unable to play for Scotland. Boyd?s decision feels in this light even more selfish an unpatriotic as he was given an opportunity others cannot get. All I can say about him is ?You Selfish Arse!?
missed out an are meant to say: You are a selfish arse!
I prefer to look upon Boyd’s decision as: unselfishly giving a chance to another more capable footballer to take his place – instead of hogging a spot which he has no right to occupy (and only does because of the colour of the bench he sits on). Anyway, good rant SJ 🙂
Incidently, my wife is half English, half German, and I am full blooded Scottish. So I have high hopes for my daughter – when she grows up, she can legitimately play for England, Scotland or Germany with equal rites.
If she plays for Germany she might actually get an audience :)! Woman football being big over there…
Basically, I agree with Mr H in his article. However ScandiJambo has illustrated very well (as usual) the “extra” circumstances common today. The media are reporting that the UK countries have some sort of “gentleman’s agreement” not to play naturalised foreigners – this seems bizarre, since why is it anything to do with England if Scotland were to select Novo (or any other SPL foreigner) ? England hardly ever play against Scotland… so whats the big deal ? Likewise, why should it matter to Scotland if England pick Almunia ? There was a predictable batch of numpties on Jim Traynor’s phone-in tonight – some claimed that Novo wasn’t good enough to play for Scotland … thereby missing the real issue.
Well that’s probably true in Novo’s case but yes they are missing the point, which is simply that international football is a competition where players from one country play against others. For me this development changes the goalposts big-time, and I cannot see the logic in it.