New FIFA ruling on switching countries

Fifa: Players can now switch countries if they have played no more than three qualifiers and are under 21:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54211943

Can anyone argue the case for this? Smaller nations rely on talented players deciding to stick with them and this seems to be another hurdle put in front of that.

FIFA congress details: https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/gv...aydszqfiw6.pdf

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The Football Stakeholders Committee established a technical working group (TWG) which proposed to....introduce three additional exceptions to the general prohibition on changing association, based on proposals from associations and case law.

On 27 February 2020, the principles underpinning the amendments were endorsed by the Football
Stakeholders Committee. On 25 June 2020, the FIFA Council recommended that the amendments to the Regulations, as presented below, be submitted to the FIFA Congress for approval.

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Would be very interesting to see what case law is referred to and which associations were able to put forward proposals.

With the Nations League almost all matches are now considered competitive. Wales have three matches in the next international break in order to fit in a pointless friendly with England so I suppose a rule tweak is inevitable.

Don't think I'm a fan of this. But i suppose it will work both ways. I dunno if you remember Mark Stein but there was talk of him getting a cap for Wales and then England capped him for a solitary game. Never picked him again. He could have still played for Wales under this rule.

surely a rule to help he bigger ( in football terms ) nations

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Originally Posted by joecity

Don't think I'm a fan of this. But i suppose it will work both ways. I dunno if you remember Mark Stein but there was talk of him getting a cap for Wales and then England capped him for a solitary game. Never picked him again. He could have still played for Wales under this rule.

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Not mark stein according to wiki. I was suprised he would have got an England cap and doesn't appear to have one unless its wrong.

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Originally Posted by mazadona10

Not mark stein according to wiki. I was suprised he would have got an England cap and doesn't appear to have one unless its wrong.

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Ah yeah... his brother Brian I meant. Him of Luton Town fame. Paul Walsh, Ricki Hill era. Very good team then

So someone like Neco Williams could still be poached by England?

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Originally Posted by blue matt

surely a rule to help he bigger ( in football terms ) nations

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I read it as being the other way 'round, Matt.

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Originally Posted by B. Oddie

I read it as being the other way 'round, Matt.

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Why do you think this helps smaller (in terms of prestige, wealth etc.) nations?

Regarding above point about Neco Williams: he was always going to pick Wales and, as far as I can see, these rules do not apply to him because they come into place after the 18th of September but another player of his kind appearing from now could still be spoken to despite having two caps for Wales. It feels we will end up with a core who know their nationality and a group of unknown size who impress at international level twice and enter a market for who has the most pull based on other factors.

I see peoples points but we could get someone like Ryan Shawcross to change his mind after he realises he's only getting that 1 cap. Not that we'd want to in his case btw, he's just an example of someone that could have played for us, but that's the idea. It can work both ways. I'm sure it was dreamed up to help the big boys though. Things usually are.

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Originally Posted by Grangenders

So someone like Neco Williams could still be poached by England?

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Judging by his comments after the Bulgaria game, I'd say that was unlikely, but this rule change is I'm afraid typical of the world we live in - the trend in legislation to favour the "strong" over the "weak" has always been around, but, in my view, it's become more pronounced in the last forty years.

I'm not convinced it's that big an issue and whilst we make maximum use of the grandparents rule we aren't in any place to complain too much about fifas rules on nationality.

I just don't see someone capped by Wales moving onto a larger nation and if he is that undecided it would probably be for the best.

We are certainly proactive in our approach to attract the younger lads and get into the Welsh system, perhaps this just balances that a bit. Also perhaps the fact that nations like ourselves cap these youngsters often when they are still breastfeeding just to get them capped, they have usually played one or two games for Liverpool u4's.

Declan rice switched before a competitive game but he's English, has Irish grandparents so qualified, annoyingly he played all youth football with Ireland until u21. For him though imagine Ireland capped him competitively at 17 and then he realised he had made a mistake a couple years later, would Ireland want that version of him anyway.

Have any Welsh players switched after playing in only friendlies before?

Overall I don't like it but I suppose there are plenty more nations league matches which are still counted?

Just make it by nationality end of.

i) How does it benefit smaller nations?

If Ryan Shawcross realising he's not going to get more than one cap and taking another look at Wales is the argument for benefiting smaller nations then I'm not persuaded. I'm thinking that we would lose an Ashley Williams (a player who discovers their pride in Wales and is incredibly dedicated) having had them impress twice at international level and gain a Paul Dummett (player where the desire is to represent club and will want to focus on that part of their career) instead.

ii) Is it justified to rebalance things?

I can be persuaded by argument that it benefits players of mixed-nationality not have to make a final decision so young, and perhaps even that it helps them by not over-working them while body is still growing.

Not sure I agree with it being fair to larger nations because larger nations have invested much more time and money into the same scouting system we have so they know almost all the same players. We could end up situation where a Declan Rice develops his game with Ireland youth set-up because he prefers the environment, plays twice for Ireland and switches to England because greater chance of playing in semi-final of international tournament...the biggest difference being that Irish fans had seen him at senior level twice before he makes the move and that is not a rebalancing.

It swings both ways, but swings a lot more in favour of the big countries.