CBEM wrote:Im_Spartacus wrote:
I agree totally with the premise of your argument, problem is, other than the last category, they are absolutely legal, and reflect the reality of global mobility.
1: There's the simple argument of representing where you were born but maybe moved away as a kid
2: 2nd generation descendent is almost always legally entitled to citizenship in the countries of their father's or mother's birth.
3: 3rd generation which is where a lot of the grey area is, as citizenship eligibility isn't automatic, their ties to the country become a bit more tenuous, but that can be viewed differently if one of the parents had birthright citizenship.
4: Then you have the shit Qatar, Saudi, UAE have been doing blatently importing Brazilians and Nigerians
Reality though is that currently most of the kids representing Morrocco for example were either born in and moved away as kids, or are 2nd generation/directly eligible for citizenship, its kinda hard to not allow when they are fully entitled to citizenship.
I mean then you have the shit Qatar, Saudi, UAE have been doing blatently importing Brazilians and Nigerians
Where do we go from here mate?
When the footballing world explain how far Cape Verde have come as a footballing nation where in reality they haven't shifted at all because many of the players haven't even set foot there.
The easy solution is to demand that a player is born in the country he represents, it'd add a bit of national pride back into international football be we all know that FIFA's greed with win as always.
I admit I'm not totally sure where it sits at the moment, but I believe the line is currently drawn at 2nd generation - which on the whole seems a reasonable line given that global standard is that a person can legally acquire citizenship in that country.
Personal example of why country of birth would be problematic, my son born in UAE, born to 2 british parents in a country where there is neither automatic nor conditional birthright citizenship - his only nationality/passport is British.
But look 1 generation further on (a circumstance I've seen many in UAE face), if my son marries another British subject also born overseas, then they have a kid born outside the UK in a country without birthright citizenship, this 3rd generation kid who has very little connection to the UK, can only legally become UK Citizens.
Given that migrants overseas, whether they be brits in UAE or Senegalese in France, more often than not will tend to marry in their own community, and also that only around 30 countries (mostly in Americas) have unconditional birthright citizenship, and only another 30 have conditional citizenship (based on parent's country of birth), this latter situation is almost certainly what we're going to see more of.
Like I said I agree generally with the premise of keeping it clean and honest, but the complexities now of the sheer volume of global migration means African countries are within their rights to try and claw back lost talent from diaspora, because even if these kids have never visited the country, these 2nd, and sometimes even 3rd generation kids are legally entitled to citizenship.
The shame is that the British Empire, seems to have had a distinct lack of foresight, colonising every country in the world without a fucking shred of football capability.