Flags of convenience

Having seen Kalou play for Feyenoord, Van Basten regarded him as potentially better than most of the strikers already available.
Only one problem. Kalou was born in the Ivory Coast — for which team his brother is playing — and had absolutely no qualification to play for Holland. There was, however, a loophole in Dutch citizenship legislation allowing individuals of exceptional “cultural merit” to be granted passports under special circumstances. The special circumstance here is Van Basten obviously feels the youngster might help his side at the World Cup.
The last we heard of the case, Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk was appealing a court order that had gone in Kalou’s favor. She was doing her best to prevent an obvious abuse of the system, one motivated purely by the prospect of sporting success. Whatever happens, the very fact Van Basten and Holland are resorting to such measures demonstrates how the international game has changed in recent years. When Steve Staunton blithely mentioned his intention to intensify Ireland’s use of the granny rule, he didn’t sound like a man who knew much about the realpolitik of contemporary sport.
In Germany this June, an entire XI of Brazilians will be representing other countries at the greatest show on earth. Not good enough for the nation where they were born, they have, through various means, become eligible for others. Alex should start his second World Cup as a Japanese stalwart, Clayton will be one of Tunisia’s most experienced players in his third trip to the big dance, and Togo may have as many as four naturalized Brazilians in their squad. None of this is very noble and of course it makes a complete mockery of the term “national team.” It is unfortunately the way too much international sport has gone. Flags of convenience are the order of the day.
In Torino next month, Tanith Belbin will be expected to land an ice dancing gold for the U.S. It’s the least she can do following the changing of immigration law last month to allow the Canadian take American citizenship. Despite having one of the toughest immigration processes in the world, the U.S. government has introduced a new provision so that people of “extraordinary ability” can have their citizenship pushed through at speed.
Specifically designed to assist with sporting cases, this legislation had many American soccer fans speculating about whether the Dallas Burn’s Ronnie O’Brien — a green card holder — might be able to switch allegiances to Bruce Arena’s team.
Since he played competitive international football for Ireland, O’Brien is ineligible to change allegiances now and given the fact Staunton name-checked him earlier this week, he will most likely be heading to Dublin for some sort of match very soon. Which is at it should be. There were enough signs over this past two years that O’Brien deserved a closer look from Brian Kerr. For all the fatuous talk of Kerr neglecting the granny rule — he didn’t — he was certainly guilty of appearing to overlook a bright, attacking and most significantly, very in-form player.
“We will look down the road of exploring the granny rule, that’s vital for getting players on board,” said Staunton last week. “If we can get four or five players, new players in, that will be important. We have to get the team up and running again, get the fans behind us, and fresh talent in the squad will help that. I don’t think there’s a family in Ireland which doesn’t have an uncle or cousins abroad, people who had to leave Ireland to find work. My children were born in England because I was playing there, but I would hate to think that someone would tell them they couldn’t play for Ireland.”
Against the background of all the international traffic between countries and the sordid production of fast-track passports, Staunton’s desire to increase the number of players available to him appears innocent enough.
Any nation with a history of immigration is entitled to capitalize on its diaspora. Croatia will arrive in Germany with at least three Australian-born footballers in their squad and will be much the better for their presence. At the same time, Staunton seems ridiculously optimistic about his chances of unearthing new talent.
It’s not as if there are a raft of superstars out there who haven’t been tapped up for international football already and have Irish roots. Should his four year reign produce even one of substance, he will probably be doing very well. As Kerr found out when he capped former England Under-20 international Jonathan Macken, and Mick McCarthy discovered with the likes of Mickey Evans, Sean Devine, Jon Goodman and Paul Butler, there’s usually a very good reason why these guys are not selected by the countries where they were born. They aren’t up to scratch.
That 29-year-old Lee Trundle — a late blooming goal machine who has significantly never played in England’s top flight — has been talked about so excitedly for so long as a possibility is a true measure of the paucity of fresh legs available to the Irish manager. Indeed, Staunton’s best hope will be getting to the most promising youngsters before they play competitive internationals at youths level for other countries. The pursuit of Shane Lowry, a 16-year-old Australian currently in the first year of a three-year deal at Aston Villa, is a case in point.
This time 12 months ago, the kid was still playing for a school team in Perth but this week Staunton’s assistant Kevin McDonald, also employed by Villa, was supposedly going to persuade the teenager to declare for the country where his parents were born. That they are hard on the trail of a youths’ player with a handful of reserve team appearances to his credit demonstrates either how astute the new management is or how bloody desperate. A bit of both perhaps?