Arteta for England?

[Rocky]

The should we, or shouldn't we debate regarding calling up Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta to the England squad rumbles on. I personally think that calling up players for a national squad who are not actually born in that nation doesn’t seem right. However some countries seem to have employed the practice successfully over the recent years. For example, Deco was born in Brazil but played for Portugal. Cacau is another Brazilian who plays for Germany and there's others.

We could end up like the England cricket team, which in effect is more like a World X1 than an England X1 at times.

It can’t be good for our game......can it?

[Tynie Topics]

Well it would certainly cause problems, because Scotland have just as much right to call him up as England do, such is the strange political set-up we have. Isn't there a gentlemans agreement in place to cover these sort of issues?

That said, no he shouldn't be called up. Until Scotland and England are politcally independent nations, with our own passports and citizenship rights, then these sort of players should be left well alone.

Just look at ROI and NI. ROI have recently been given the green light to raid NI for any players they fancy, they give any NI resident the right to have an Irish passport if they want one. NI appealed to FIFA and the CAS that players should conform to the residency rules, but it was rejected, ridiculous.
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[efcbluenose]

im an everton fan i watch arteta in every home he plays.i have to say this season so far hasnt been his best but its early days.i do expect him to be outstanding for us as tradition every season.why cant he play for england ??? hes naturlised now it doesnt look like his birthland are going to using him regularly.thats always been spains problem they've had outstanding players over the years who would have got 60-90 odd caps for a lot of countries if they werent spanish.spanish have got so much choice and talent wise to choose from.they so strong in midfield.old mick knows england are after him and looking at him and are interested.capello definatly is looking at him so maybe mickel is thinking why not....but until they come to him mikel arteta wont say anything on the subject which is the correct thing to do.he's classy on and off the field is arteta.he'd fit right into that england midfield and give them a midfielder who'd create put his foot on the ball and keep possesion and look to build and carve chances out for forwards.id personally love to see him called up by capello but speaking with my blues heart id be scared of him been taken from us if he did play for england and he'd end up at chelski or somewhere like that. jack charlton gave ireland their most sucessfull era by calling up non irishmen and ironcially englishmen.so hey it has happened.

[vintage_football_memorabi]

How can any englishman resort to wanting this?
naturalised my arse,he's spanish and an average one at that.
Yes we are in shit creek but no degos please we are ENGLISH!!!!!!!!

[James]

Youngsters in this country can barely dream of playing premier league football now due to all the foriegners, now we're going to fill the england national team with foreign players to, it's horse____. We already have to put up with these so called international players from overseas playing in the premier league when half of them are CRAP and not good enough for League 2 yet here we are with team owners paying them millions of pounds a season.

Surely the government needs to step in to protect the british workforce as the influx of foriegn players is pushing the british kids away from football and this is going to have a knock on affect for people who want to work in other areas and increase the unemployment levels.
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[gang-warily]

I am very much against the prospect of Arteta playing for England (or any other home nation come to that - good point Tynie Topics). To play for a national team the player must have some sort of heritage/lineage to that nation.
if Arteta had an English parent or grandparent - then yes, he could be picked. Vinne Jones played for wales on that rule (and there are countless other examples) and i have no problem with that - he is part Welsh after all. Similarly if a player moved to a country as a child and grew up there they could be picked if they were English (or scottish or canadian or whatever) when he turned 18. But moving to a country (having played for Spain U21s!), living there for 5 years and then getting capped - ridiculous. I hope it never happens.

[Auchinleckian]

vintage_football_memorabi wrote:

How can any englishman resort to wanting this? naturalised my arse,he's spanish and an average one at that. Yes we are in shit creek but no degos please we are ENGLISH!!!!!!!!

Surely there could be a semi serious debate on this issue without resorting to infantile racism? Stick to writing to the Sun with crap like that.

[Senior82]

I actually wouldn't mind. He's been here a while, he can have an English/UK passport by law, so he qualifies. Germany wiped the floor with us with their fantastic German/Turkish/Brazilian/Bosnian allstars. It's been happening for decades - look at Eusebio, Di Stefano, Puskas - they all played international football for countries other than their birth place.

The only problem I have with it is that I don't think he'd be any better than what we have already.

[ToffeeDan]

Senior82 wrote:

I actually wouldn't mind. He's been here a while, he can have an English/UK passport by law, so he qualifies. Germany wiped the floor with us with their fantastic German/Turkish/Brazilian/Bosnian allstars. It's been happening for decades - look at Eusebio, Di Stefano, Puskas - they all played international football for countries other than their birth place. The only problem I have with it is that I don't think he'd be any better than what we have already.

I promise you he is!

I'd prefer him to be selected by Spain but I'm sure I'd accept an improvement to the England team.

[badhand]

Not qualified to play for England, apparently.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8961817.stm

[Rocky]

Well that’s put that to bed but undoubtedly there will be others linked to England (or other home nations) over the coming years.

[Barrett]

It's a debate that will go on and on for years to come regarding various different players.

But to be fair, if you had been over looked by your own country, you cant blame a player for saying he would consider playing for a different country.

The player has done no wrong here, it's FIFA for allowing this can of worms to be opened up in the first place.

[Auchinleckian]

Could he replace Kevin Pietersen at number 4?

[Wulfrunian]

I think that if public opinion had been in favour of Arteta playing for England there would have been a loophole found. As it was though, public opinion seemed to be more against him playing than for it, and this has given the FA a way out without losing face.
In my own opinion FIFA should rule on it now with a definitive answer to how a player qualifies, be it through residence or family connection so there is no problem in the future, especially as more and more people are moving countrythese days.
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[Rocky]

I watched some of the Lithuania v Scotland game this evening and how they could do with someone like Stuart Holden, the Bolton player who was born in Aberdeen but plays his international football for America.

Still Darlington born James Morrison came on as a sub.

[STEEL_CITY_SMOGGY]

Morrison could do a job for us now, sod Scotland!!!
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[Tynie Topics]

Rocky Boro wrote:

I watched some of the Lithuania v Scotland game this evening and how they could do with someone like Stuart Holden, the Bolton player who was born in Aberdeen but plays his international football for America. Still Darlington born James Morrison came on as a sub.

That's the way of International football these days, but I was a bit peed off when I saw Morrison coming off the bench instead of another striker (nothing to do with where he was born). Oh well, at least it was sunny, occasionally, the beer was cheap though.
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[Footybits]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE lets not go down this route, Id rather England remain a crap football team than end up with a team (cast off cos theyre not good enough for theyre home country) of foreigners - no matter how the "law" defines foreigners.

Im not in anyway being xenophobic but come on how does this sound as a chant ... "Im Spain, Argentina, France, German, Holland etc till I die"

And can you imagine the scenario if we end up with say half a dozen Germans in the team how they will respond to the "German Bombers" song?

Of course using chants as a reason maybe trivialises it a bit but I truly believe if we do go down the dual nationality route we WILL end up with OUR national team being made up of 11 non English born players at some point in the future.

One things for sure, the minute a nationalised spaniard/german/etc player turns out for England my St Georges Cross tattoo is being lasered off !!
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[Superajm]

Footybits wrote:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE lets not go down this route, Id rather England remain a crap football team than end up with a team (cast off cos theyre not good enough for theyre home country) of foreigners - no matter how the "law" defines foreigners. Im not in anyway being xenophobic but come on how does this sound as a chant ... "Im Spain, Argentina, France, German, Holland etc till I die" And can you imagine the scenario if we end up with say half a dozen Germans in the team how they will respond to the "German Bombers" song? Of course using chants as a reason maybe trivialises it a bit but I truly believe if we do go down the dual nationality route we WILL end up with OUR national team being made up of 11 non English born players at some point in the future. One things for sure, the minute a nationalised spaniard/german/etc player turns out for England my St Georges Cross tattoo is being lasered off !!

Whats your feelings on John Barnes then? Didn't move to England until after his schooling in Jamaica then went on to be one of Englands best wingers.

Tony Dorigo, Matt Le Tissier, Owen Hargreaves, Cyrille Regis the list is quite long

There was rumours of Cudicini not too long ago and he was rated as one of the best keepers in England (5 years ago)

Even the 'British Bulldog' Terry Butcher was born in Singapore

[Footybits]

I understand where your coming from and yes, granted, there are always going to be anomalies, the Barnes one being a fairly high profile example.

Barnes/Butcher/ et al though werent exactly cast offs from other countries international teams were they?

In fact they spent the majority of their childhoods as "English" and the whole of their football careers in England.

(Lets not forget Arteta only ended up in England cos he couldnt make it at his home countries Barcelona and Real Sociedad, never mind the fact hes played for Spain U21s !!!)

However this isnt a dig against one particular player or a case study in pinpointing the few cases where the rules have been bent. Its a look at how things could turn out if we let every Tom, Dick and Harry decide to move to a country, live in it for 3 years and then play for it !!

So the point I was trying to make (long windedly) was if we went down this route your in danger of of international football ending up in the same state as the premiership with teams attempting to "buy" success.

Lets imagine this way OTT (but lawful scenario) scenario;

A VERY VERY VERY rich ex oil baron turned reclusive fisherman on the Orkney Islands wants to turn his home island into an international force .... few quick phone calls to agents and a few billion pound thrown about and hey presto youve got Messi, Torres, Gerrard, Villa, Drogba, Puyol, Ibrahimovic, Fabregas, Buffon, Eto, Kaka etc etc setting up home on the island and playing for Orkney British Legion in the Orkney & District Fishermens Sunday League watched by crowds of 17 trawlermen and 15000 seals !!

Makes for a very boring few seasons as this set of expensively assembled trophy hunters win everything in sight on their little island but 3 Years down the line they are now nationalised and recognised as fully fledged Orkney internationals and go on to win the 2016 World Cup !!

Is that what you want ?

Nah, sorry mate, not me. Lets get back to the days of 11 Englishmen playing 11 Germans/11 Scots/11 Brazilians etc etc and not run the risk of football mercanaries or other nations cast offs turn international football into just another version of the Champions League.

So to make it a bit more blunt ...... the day an OBVIOUSLY Spanish/German/Dutch/FOREIGN player turns out for England it stops being an England team and REAL Englishmen will stop supporting it so fervently.
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