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A useful passing game


Foreigners, migrants and refugees cannot change their nationality so easily. There is, however, a long history of footballers being handed citizenship because their ability promises success.

Take Josef Pisipal, for example, a World Cup winner in 1954 who was born in Romania to a Hungarian mother and a 'Danube-Swabian' father. At the age of 17 he went to Hanover under National Socialism to work in a munitions factory and took German citizenship in 1951 to allow him to make his debut in a Germany shirt against Turkey. Or Rainer Bonhoff, who supplied the pass for Germany's winning goal against Holland in the 1974 World Cup final. As a young player he himself was a Dutch citizen. Germany international Darius Wosz was Polish when he emigrated to East Germany with his parents.

Calls for the naturalisation of players became louder after Germany's poor performances at the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship. A policy that with the South African Sean Dundee and the Brazilian Paulo Rink had failed to deliver rapid success was expanded by the inclusion of Oliver Neuville, Gerald Asamoah and Paul Freier, amongst others, and, above all, by a change of emphasis in the area of youth work.

It is clear that the face of the German national team will undergo increasing change, a development that met with rejection by neo-Nazis and the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup.

"If you look at the issue from a historical perspective", said Pierre Lanfranchi in 1999, "in many European countries it is now possible to have two nationalities at the same time and in some cases even three or four. I use Algerians who were born in France as an example. They have the right to be French and Algerian nationals at the same time. But for FIFA and the sports organisations this does not exist. Here the principle is 'either one or the other'. This situation is simply no longer in line with modern European reality. Many players, especially African players in Europe, have this dual nationality - and not only because of sport but because they are the sons of immigrants - but FIFA, for example, does not recognise it. [-] Asking people who belong to two societies at the same time and have two identities to opt for one or the other is a big ethical problem. In this case the differentiation between national and foreign players still exists. If you look at the situation in European professional football, however, you will see this does not apply."

So what does the future hold in store? Players who are allowed to change national teams or the devaluation of national teams in favour of the Champions League or teams that represent leagues?