Monday, June 05, 2006
« Special import Coca Cola | Main | A strange song to sell ice cream with »
World Cup fever
Supporting my World Cup team(s?) There are once again great hopes for England in the World Cup (starting on Friday in case you're living under a rock or in many parts of the USA). Besides the inevitable media onslaught (Google News search for "Wayne Rooney" gives 9000 results at the moment) this is definitely reflected in the massive increase in the number of St. George flags on display


For example, when I ride my bike to work outside of World Cup season, depending on my exact route I typically see anywhere from zero to zero England flags. Today I saw them in more than 40 different places, ranging from the windows of council flats (typically the most heavily England-decorated), to white vans (as expected, the majority of vehicles flying the colours), to one snarling pitbull wearing an England bandanna. And no doubt there were more I didn't notice as my flag-spotting tendencies were somewhat curtailed by the need to watch traffic so that I could stay alive another day. Needless to say this boom in England flag-waving has not gone unnoticed by the handwringing brigade, mostly because the flag has been appropriated by certain groups as a sort of white power symbol (sorta like the Confederate flag, only in this case the St. George flag remains the official flag of England). Yawn.

My own allegiances are highly divided, especially with my recent naturalisation as a British citizen. Or at least you'd think so. But the truth is, I'm not sure whether my British citizenship entitles me to support England. I'm British but am I English? I suppose this really depends on the answer to the question "Were I fit enough to make the team, would I now qualify to play for England in the World Cup?" Concerning eligibility FIFA article 15 (Statutes in PDF) says this:

1. Any person holding the nationality of a country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of his country. The Executive Committee shall decide on the conditions of eligibility for any Player who assumes a new nationality and for whom par. 3 of this article does not apply, or for any Player who would, in principle, be eligible to play for the teams of more than one Association due to his nationality.
2. As a general rule, any Player who has already represented one Association (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category may not play an international match with another Association team.
3. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if the Player is eligible to play for several Association teams due to his nationality, the following exceptions apply:
(a) Up to his 21st birthday, a player may only once request changing the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches. A Player may exercise this right to change Associations only if he has not played at "A" international level for his current Association and if at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition of any other category, he already had such nationalities. Changing Associations is not permitted during the preliminary competition of a FIFA competition, continental championship or Olympic Tournaments if a player has already been fielded in a match of one of these competitions.
(b) Any Player who has already acquired eligibility to play for one Association but has another nationality imposed upon him by a government authority, is also entitled to change associations. This provision is not subject to any age limits.

 Quite clear then. I hold US and UK nationality, am over the age of 21 and and have not played for any Association, thus I am entitled to play for either the US or the UK at this time. However, it's a bit more complicated than this as the UK does not have a unified team in the World Cup. Fortunately some clarifying information is available at the England Football Online site (linky):

The national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are, however, a special case because these four "home countries" are part of one national state, the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish citizenship.

The associations of these four countries entered an agreement regarding international eligibility in 1993 which provides that a player holding a British passport is eligible to play for the country of his birth, the country of the birth of either of his natural parents or the country of birth of any of his natural grandparents. If the player, his natural parents and his natural grandparents were born outside the U.K., he may play for the home country of his choice. Our understanding is that once a player has played for one of the home countries, even if it is only a friendly match, the 1993 agreement precludes him playing for another home country.

This is very interesting indeed -- it seems that at the moment I am very much a free agent, entitled to play for any of five national teams. Do I choose the long-established glory of England, the only World Cup winner among the five (but with perhaps more stringent selection standards)? Or do I go with official FIFA world rankings:

#5 USA (tied with Spain)
#10 England
#59 Scotland
#74 Wales (tied with Kuwait)
#96 Northern Ireland

Only the USA and England are in the World Cup final this year (current betting odds decisively differ from rankings: USA are currently 80-1 to win it all; England are second favorite at 7-1). Or maybe I go in the other direction, taking into consideration my poor level of world-class football fitness, and try and qualify for Northern Ireland, the lowest ranked team I qualify to play for. Or I could always rule out those countries I've never set foot in, leaving only Wales among the lower tier.

In any event, since I definitely qualify to play for England at the moment, there's no reason I cannot officially support them as well. So be prepared to deal with a drunken, lairy Dunce starting about 10am on the days of England games (10 June, 15 June, 20 June for sure), and when they finally (inevitably) crash out in the elimination rounds, be ready to console me (and/or fight me).

Monday, June 05, 2006 12:56:13 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [4]  |