FIFA eligibility rules

[1] Specifically, FIFA maintains and implements rules determining a player's eligibility to represent a particular national team in officially sanctioned international competitions and friendly matches.

[1] Some countries, like the United Kingdom, are represented by constituent associations (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), while other associations represent regions not typically recognized as independent countries, such as dependent territories (e.g., Gibraltar), autonomous states or territories (e.g., the Faroe Islands, Kosovo), and enclaves, principalities, or microstates (e.g., San Marino).

[2] Di Stefano's Real Madrid teammate Ferenc Puskás also played for Spain after amassing 85 caps for Hungary earlier in his career.

[16] An emergency FIFA committee ruling judged that players must be able to demonstrate a "clear connection" to a country that they had not been born in but wished to represent.

"[17] The residency requirement for players lacking birth or ancestral connections with a specific country was extended from two to five years in May 2008 at FIFA's Congress as part of Blatter's efforts to preserve the integrity of competitions involving national teams.

It is not uncommon for national team managers and scouts to attempt to persuade players to change their FIFA nationality; in June 2011, for example, Scotland manager Craig Levein confirmed that his colleagues had started a dialogue with United States under-17 international Jack McBean in an attempt to persuade him to represent Scotland in the future.

[20] Gareth Bale was asked about a possibility to play for England, being of English descent through his grandmother, but ultimately opted to represent Wales, his country of birth.

[30] In September 2020, the 70th edition of the FIFA Congress approved a rule change that now allows players to switch 3 years later if they have played no more than three competitive matches at senior level prior to them turning 21 including no appearances in FIFA World Cup finals matches or continental finals (e.g. the UEFA European Championship).

Mourad had made friendly match appearances for Sweden earlier in his career, but had not requested permission from FIFA to change national associations before playing for Syria.

This protest was upheld by the Oceania Football Confederation, resulting in New Zealand being disqualified and Vanuatu taking their place in the final.

Cabrera was subsequently found to be ineligible by FIFA, which resulted in the awarding of 3–0 wins for Bolivia's opponents, affecting the final standings in the table and contributing to Peru's qualification for the World Cup at the expense of Chile.

The agreement is often erroneously thought to be a response to cases similar to Maik Taylor, who was born in Germany to an English father and chose to represent Northern Ireland at international level despite having no ties to the nation.

[44] The agreement was not applied when Taylor was called up by the IFA, possibly because in his case, neither the FA, SFA nor FAW was interested in capping him, unlike e.g. David Johnson (below) and so raised no objection.

Eric Young (born in Singapore) and Pat Van Den Hauwe (born in Belgium) had both previously opted for Wales under the same rules in 1985 and 1990 respectively, although both grew up in England;[45][46] Australian Tony Dorigo had been denied the chance to play for his birth nation by his club manager at Aston Villa due to the travelling distances and low standards of opposition, and successfully obtained citizenship in 1986 in order to play for England[47] – but had no relevant British ancestry and could have represented any of the home nations.

In late September 1999, the Ipswich Town forward was called up by Wales (and withdrew from the squad due to injury) and later Scotland.

[48] Johnson was a Jamaican immigrant who was raised by foster parents in England, and he believed he could choose which UK nation to represent; the (English) Football Association (FA) had advised the player's agent that the international change of allegiance could go ahead.

[48] The SFA had chosen to abide by the agreement; unlike the Irish Football Association (IFA), who in addition to courting David Johnson had capped Germany-born Maik Taylor the previous year.

[49] A Football Association of Wales (FAW) spokesman Cerri Stennett said that they were "extremely puzzled by this development" and they thought "he was eligible to play for any of the four home countries and that's why Lawrie McMenemy wanted him for Northern Ireland as well."

Stennett stated that FIFA gave clearance to Johnson switch allegiance to Wales' national squad and "he was on the substitute's bench for a match.

McMenemy's successor Sammy McIlroy was not pleased with his predecessor's policy, upon being appointed as Northern Ireland manager he said: "It's farcical chasing players with absolutely no connection to our country.

Scotland's playing captain Christian Dailly felt differently, telling the Daily Record newspaper that "I don't care if they call in Zinedine Zidane.

Sanchez spoke of his frustration with the rule: "I must stick by the British agreement which says that you shouldn't approach a player unless he has family ties with that particular country.

[42] The introduction of the new clause allows a player to gain eligibility for a British national team if he receives five years of education in the territory of the relevant association: d) He has engaged in a minimum of five years education under the age of 18 within the territory of the relevant association.As a direct result of the clause change, England-born Andrew Driver became eligible to play for the Scotland national team in June 2012.

[61] The criteria for eligibility to represent a home nation is: In July 2012, the Football Association of Wales confirmed that Swansea City F.C.

[62] In February 2025, the Football Association of Wales expressed an interest in selecting English-born midfielder Matt Grimes for international duty, and proposed changes to the home nation agreement to allow this.

[64] A 2006 FIFA decision to require a UK passport was reversed after a month of IFA protests, with intervention from Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and Dermot Ahern, the Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The Committee discussed this very serious matter at length and had to come to the unfortunate conclusion that FIFA cannot interfere with the decisions taken by any country in the question of granting passports.

This means that the [IFA] is exposed to a one-way situation, where players can choose to play for your association teams but the vice versa is not possible.

No further connection (as described by Article 16) has to exist between Mr Kearns and the Republic of Ireland to make him eligible to play for the FAI's representative team.