European Champonship 2016

[Gulliball]

I think it's a bit unfair to put Grealish in that bracket. He was born in Birmingham, has lived there all his life and both his parents are English. He has some Irish family history two generations back but he really should be representing England. He was in an England youth squad but had to pull out through injury and then when he didn't make the next squad he chose to switch to Ireland who did call him up. I don't think a choice made when he's 15/16 should prevent him playing for the country of his birth and upbringing.

I agree in general though. Half of the Scotland squad is English players with one grandparent who once fell asleep on a train and walked around Gretna train station for half an hour. You can't blame the players for wanting to play international football, but it does water down the whole point of what international football actually is. Cases like Diego Costa playing for Spain are now pushing that into ridiculous proportions - he moved to Spain from Brazil as a professional footballer for the increased standard of football and a lot more money. He's now eligible to play for Spain, only because they were a wealthy enough country to tempt him there.

An ever increasing multinational world makes defining nationality a lot harder than it has been in the past, but I would like to see stricter rules to protect the concept before it goes too far.

I really do feel for Northern Ireland as well, and am delighted for them to qualify.

[PhilGull]

To be fair, I think most of the Scotland squad these days are Scottish. The Irish seem the worst (best?) at this, some of their best players are born in Scotland with Scotland born parents.

[Dave]

Call me sad, I've just been through Scotland's last 21 man squad, of which 4 were born in England, 1 in Malaysia, the rest all born in Scotland. Personally don't think anyone wants to see football become the new athletics, where you can run for Kenya in the Olympics and Sweden by the next European championships.

Not sure where anyone can draw the line though. John Barnes is one I always turn to when this subject crops up, born in Jamaica didn't move to England until he was 12 (not sure I'm going to use the right words here so forgive me if I don't) with mass migration at the level it is, how would we view say a family that moves here from Poland, with a couple of sons U6 years old born in Poland, the family settles here, become British citizens those children by time they've reached 18 would have gone through our schools and by all intents and purposes be English.

Both go on to become top flight footballers, would we want to stop them from playing for England, if choose to rather than playing for Poland the country of their birth, then look across to Germany, how long before a percentage of their national team would have been born in Syria, or from some other country.

[PhilGull]

Call me sad, I've just been through Scotland's last 21 man squad, of which 4 were born in England, 1 in Malaysia, the rest all born in Scotland. Personally don't think anyone wants to see football become the new athletics, where you can run for Kenya in the Olympics and Sweden by the next European championships.

Not sure where anyone can draw the line though. John Barnes is one I always turn to when this subject crops up, born in Jamaica didn't move to England until he was 12 (not sure I'm going to use the right words here so forgive me if I don't) with mass migration at the level it is, how would we view say a family that moves here from Poland, with a couple of sons U6 years old born in Poland, the family settles here, become British citizens those children by time they've reached 18 would have gone through our schools and by all intents and purposes be English.

Both go on to become top flight footballers, would we want to stop them from playing for England, if choose to rather than playing for Poland the country of their birth, then look across to Germany, how long before a percentage of their national team would have been born in Syria, or from some other country.

If they feel British (English), if they identify with the nation then I would be happy to see them play for England.

Germany already has a number of Polish born players and some of Turkish decent. Then you have the Boateng brothers (half brothers?) one plays for Germany, one for Ghana and one for Holland!

[leetufc]

I personally have no problem with Grealish choosing to represent England over Ireland as he does have clear links to England, not through residency rules or via a grandparent. My issue is that he was happy to represent Ireland at youth level, turn down call ups from England youth set up whilst part of the Ireland team, benefit from the playing and exposure and all the input of time from them - and now is turning his back on them. Whilst I agree a player shouldn't be limited from a decision they make at 15/16 - but Grealish has played for Ireland from U17 to U21 between age 15 and 20. He has had plenty of time to consider his position and is old enough to have made a decision earlier. He has now chosen to represent England, but if he doesn't get a cap in the next two years may choose to go back to Ireland, which just gets ridiculous.

There needs to be tighter rules on how a player can represent a nation - I would personally get rid of the residency rule for players over 18. If a person moves to a country at a young age it can be fair to assume they can start to feel part of that nationality. However the idea of older players being able to move nations is where it starts to become a grey area. Whilst I don't doubt there is still the possibility that older players move to a county and can start to feel part of the culture, there is nothing to stop rich nations offering players money to move to a country, wait X years then become an international for that country.

The Diego Costa situation is ludicrous for two reasons. One - he is eligible for Spain via a flimsy residency law (which varies from country to country). Two - he had already chosen Brazil at full level (in friendlies) when he was 25 and clearly old enough to choose country.

As far as I am aware, there are only two international Boateng brothers? They do have an older brother George, but I don't think he is a pro footballer and is different to the former Boro and Villa player who represented Holland. Whilst I don't question Kevin Prince's eligibility to represent Ghana as he had a Ghanaian father, from what I am aware the only reason he did was because he would never get chosen for Germany as he had ruined his chances by going clubbing whilst on youth duty and fell out with German technical director, and this led to the situation where Kevin Prince and George lined up against each other. I think his allegiance to the Ghana team is shown by his retirement after the 2010 world cup, and then coming back for the 2014 WC.