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| Rowan Liburd Is One Of Hereford's Three Internationals |
Hereford FC historian Ron Parrott has been looking at the 'international rules for qualification'. Currently there are three 'internationals' in the Hereford squad.
Below is his interpretation of the rules.
1. Place of birth dictates which country one represents
2. There is a choice, depending upon the nationality of one’s
father, mother, grandfather or grandmother so for example, if you were
English, your mother Welsh, your father Scottish, one of your four
grandparents Irish, another from Northern Ireland,
another from Gibraltar and another from St. Kitts & Nevis, then you
would have the choice of representing any one of these countries. (I
chose Gibraltar and St. Kitts & Nevis because we currently have
three English lads playing for Hereford who represented
these two because their grandmother in one case and their grandfather
in the other, were born there)
3. To complicate matters, once one has decided which country to
play for and has represented that country officially, it is possible to
swap allegiances, providing that they meet the qualification criteria in
2. above. However, this has to be submitted
in writing to FIFA, who will investigate and make a final decision. In
practice, this happens quite frequently. However, only one switch is
ever allowed, no matter what the circumstances.
4. Finally, as was the case with Pat van den Hauwe, who incidentally was born in Belgium not Holland but brought up in London.
As
a
player with British citizenship born outside the UK, eligibility rules
of the time meant that Van Den Hauwe qualified to play for the national
football team of any of the four Home Nations. He chose Wales but thank goodness the rules have changed now
(see 5. below)
5.
Finally, providing that one has resided in the same country for five
years or more, after the age of 18 (designed to stop big clubs poaching
foreign players at a very young age and grooming them), one can switch
allegiance and represent that country, providing
that one has not played for more than one country previously.