Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 July 12

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July 12

Raheem Sterling and England

How is Raheem Sterling eligible to play football for England? Hack (talk) 11:26, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

He moved to London when he was seven. But the England team article does not contain the words eligible/eligibility or standard so I don't know what rules they use. Seems like an oversight. Rmhermen (talk) 13:32, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

"For a foreign player to qualify to play for the England national team, he must have lived in the country for 5 years, and not be capped by another country in a competitive match (tournament qualifier or tournament match). Once the player has lived in the country for 5 years, if they are willing to obtain a British passport and surrender their passport of their homeland, they will then be classed a British citizen, able to represent the territory to which they reside." [1] That's from a blog, but see also our article List of England international footballers born outside England. Alansplodge (talk) 14:11, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

See FIFA eligibility rules. Nanonic (talk) 00:37, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

I've seen it, I'm asking how he meets the requirements. Hack (talk) 00:47, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

The International career section of his article explains it all. Rmhermen (talk) 04:36, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Seems bizarre that the British associations would have looser eligibility requirements than the rest of the world. Hack (talk) 06:29, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it's fair to say they have looser rules - they just have different ones. To simplify, in UK, you qualify if you have received 5 years of education in the country before you're 18. In the rest of the world you don't. In the rest of the world you qualify if you have resided in the country for 5 years after you're 18. In UK you don't. It's a bit strange, but it's the side effect of the Home nations agreement which evolved so that England, Scotland, Wales and NI can sort out who can play for which team. You could say that the real issue is that UK is allowed to have 4 football associations in the first place, which none of the other countries can do. No longer a penguin (talk) 09:20, 14 July 2015 (UTC)