[roseboy64]

Originally Posted by aussie

But at the same time i think you may be exaggerating slightly when you say..."To grant that it'd pretty much mean the disbandment of the national associations and to form a GB team as FIFA views the Home Nations as it does the Basques and the only reason the Home Nations continue as they are is through their history and the fact they don't pick foreign players".

Since if FIFA views the home nations as the they do the Basque's over in Spain. Then how did Marcos Senna get picked by Spain?. He didn't have spanish or basque home schooling or spanish heritage. Just gained Spanish residency & qualified to play for them.

Preferably yea, him having hame a string of solid performances would be better than just a one-off. But ENG have a crisis @ RB ATM with the incumbent (Johnson) being utter crap defensively. So its worth the risk i'd say, especially when you consider Richards did prove before last season he can defend well againts good players - something that Johnson never proved he can do before Capello picked him & he made a national embarassment of himself vs Germany, SMH.

Originally Posted by marc71178

Why would it?

What is the difference between that and Germany picking Poles or Spain and Portugal picking Brazilians?

Well those nations haven't deleted the section in the FIFA Statutes that grants eligibility to naturalised citizens. The Home Nations are unique in that regard. As I said, this is due to them making up the IFAB and also being so powerful in football. The Basques are inconsequential in FIFA's eyes and I think people like Messi have played for them.

The Gentleman's Agreement means the UK teams can't pick any random foreigner. Of course Poles can qualify for England if they have British heritage or were schooled in Britain. Pretty sure Cacau has no German heritage but Germany can pick him all they want as well as Spain Senna since those countries have the section that grants eligibility in full i.e the part that says residency grants eligibility isn't omitted.

It's a FIFA law. BTW from what I know FIFA would ideally want a GB team has the Home Nations separately have loads of power. It's not a must that a GB team would have to form with the breaking of the agreement but it's a likely consequence should politics get involved.



Re: Richards , he needs to have that string of performances. You can't risk him going back to what he was doing in the qualifiers unless you see sustained improvement. Against Spurs he was hardly brilliant right?