Summary
THE Mikel Arteta to England/Scotland story: was it (a) a perfect journalistic storm which was soon exposed as an impossible seven- day wonder, or (b) an episode of more lasting significance, a glimpse at the shifting fault lines of international football? The obvious answer is the first one. No sooner had Everton's swashbuckling Spanish playmaker mentioned post-match one day that he would consider taking UK citizenship and changing his international allegiance should Fabio Capello include him in his next squad than a Fifa spokesman was pointing out a small, but crucial, sub-clause that insists that as he was ineligible to play for England back when he played in the European Under-16 Championships and Fifa Under-17 World Cup for Spain, he can't change his mind now.
It all left the FA squirming with embarrassment and neatly averted a constitutional crisis of sorts among the other home nations, who felt they had an agreement that the only exception to the bloodline or "grandparents rule" came in the case of kids who had participated in five years' worth of schooling in that country - ie Andrew Driver or Islam Feruz. We have been here before, of course. At points over the last decade varying degrees of outcry have greeted similarly short-lived campaigns pressing the Scotland claims of David Johnson, Didier Agathe, Lorenzo Amoruso and Nacho Novo. Still the uneasy equilibrium between the home nations has held.See the full content of this document
Extract
International Eligibility the New Game in Town
Attempting to address the failings of your indigenous football culture by capping every player who happens to develop a fondness for haggis or shortbread is hardly the most progressive of long- term policies, but the UK nation...
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