World Cup question?

[flipflop]

Originally Posted by TommyBB

They must have legal citizenship, and not have played for any other nation, iIrc.

Not necessarily.

A player must either have lived in a country for at least two years, or have a parent or grandparent who was born there to be eligible.

Any player assuming a new nationality without a clear connection to that country will NOT be eligible to play for it.

Players who have not played an 'A' international match for their country, meaning a match in a competitive international tournament such as the Gold Cup, World Cup, or World Cup qualifying - and excluding friendlies - are eligible to switch to any federation of a country for which they held citizenship at the time they played for a youth team of the original country. (Many of the Algerian players who were born in France took advantage of this rule.)