can a player change which country he wants to play for in the world cup?

Question

for example if he were born in england and played for england but his parents were born in france and brazil could he then choose to play for france or brazil or does he have to stay with england? (all examples)

T & T have a player called Chris Birchall that was born in england but coz his mum was born in Trinadad he can play for them so that means he can NVA play for England now?

Answer 1

This is the FIFA rule regarding your question. This rule came into force on 1 January 2004.

Up his 21st birthday, a player who has represented an Association team (Country) in one or more matches of an official competition may henceforth request to change the Association for which he is eligible, provided that he fulfils the following criteria:

- he has not played at “A” international level for the Association for which he is eligible at the time he submitted the request;- he had dual nationality (or more than two nationalities), at the time of his first appearance in an international match in an official competition of any category. Therefore, this provision does not apply to any players who have been naturalised after having already represented one Association. Consequently, FIFA has rejected the request submitted by Murat Mogomedov, a Russian player but now a naturalised Israeli, as he has already played for Russia.

Any player who fulfils the above criteria may only once request to change the Association for which he is eligible.

Answer 2

In the past it was possible for players to play for different countries in the World Cup. An example of this is Ferenc Puskas the great Hungarian star who played for Hungary in 1954 but played for Spain in 1962.
New rules were introduced in the early 90s where, once a player has represented one country at international level in a competitive fixture at any level i.e. U19, U21 etc then he could not represent another country. However because of countries breaking up there are recent examples of players playing for more than one national team at a World Cup i.e. Robert Prosinecki for Yugoslavia 1990 and Croatia in 1998 and 2002.

Answer 3

Each player joins the national team of his country according to his nationality.

If a player obtains a different nationality during his career (for any reason) then he can join the "new" national team unless he had already joined the national team of his previous nationality

Answer 4

Yes

Answer 5

Yes! But he has to have that country's nationality and must be accepted by that team!

Answer 6

that will be very bad. i think that the national team should be from players of that nation. i also am against players like camoranesi who is from argentina and plays for italy! thats really bad, he plays since he has relatives from italy or something like that.

Answer 7

if a player has played from a certain team at national level he can never play from any other team....

Answer 8

yes they can, if they change their citizenship.

example: deco. brazillian by birth but plays for portugal now.

as for your example, the player can only play in england unless he forgoes his citizenship and decides to change his nationality.

Answer 9

I think they can... I hear of an american playing for a team in Europe (not the american team) they can be signed on.

Answer 10

yes he can after the national team accept