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timmy cahill is a case in point for the socceroos - he played for a junior samoa squad, having had his dad check with the australian federation, with the samoan one and with fifa, all of whom assured him this would not affect his chance at representing a senior australian side, in the event he turned out to be good enough (someone with foresight, then...)
come the moment he was wanted for the olympic (under 20) side, a furore kicked in and fifa tried to renege on their word. took months of argy bargy and frantic tussling but we almost lost him to the mighty samoan national side.
your case in point of deco is also one i'd point to where a country adopts mercenary tactics - though i guess the prior portuguese links are likely to be stronger for a brasilian than any qatar links might!
and while it first up only affects the minnows, these players then play against stronger teams and qatar won the gulf cup a couple years ago, making a mockery, really, of the concept of nationals representing their nation and participating, not winning, as a goal.
i did, though, watch the qatar juniors beat england in the world youth cup semi-final, standing among the english fans in my nascent skinhead days, chanting and singing and having fun in what was an all nighter before my school muck-up day, though secretly pleased to see the minnows get up, deserving the result playing better football (they went down to a much better germany in the final)
a thorny issue though for fifa to deal with, stepping in to a sovereign state's autonomy to be able to determine who it considers to be its national citizen and who it will then bewstow all the protections associated thereto.
good showing by the socceroos, but! a scintillating first half, three good goals and a few great stops by a great qatari keeper saving a real blow-out. boys shuffled about in the second half, jet-lag and bodgy oranges obviously! with china securing half the spoils in dubai against iraq, puts us in the box seat in the group to qualify for the last stage and a good shot at going to south africa. astro is happy...  |
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