If you emigrate to Britain and become a British citizen, which bit would you be allowed to represent in the Commonwealth Games, World Cup etc?

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Cos on your passport it would just say British, not English, Welsh etc, and you wouldn't have been born in any of the home nations...

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 09:51 (twenty years ago)

You get to pick the bit you like the most.

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 09:56 (twenty years ago)

So Northern Ireland are screwed, then.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 09:57 (twenty years ago)

I would imagine you would choose which country you lived/trained in.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

Or which national squad would have you, and what have you.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 10:42 (twenty years ago)

I think you have complete freedom of choice. Nigel Quashie and David Johnson play for Scotland, for example, neither of whom have, to my knowledge, spent any time playing in the Scottish league

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 10:46 (twenty years ago)

And the ~~>Scottish~~ Traitor Nicol swapped countries.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 10:48 (twenty years ago)

What's wrong with Northern Ireland?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 11:19 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, yer chances of being in the national team would be greater, right?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 11:29 (twenty years ago)

What's wrong with Northern Ireland?

- there is water separating it from Great Britain
- they are a not competitive in most team sports due to small population

portsmouth once had a player [Dave Waterman] born in guernsey who represented northern ireland u21s

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 11:32 (twenty years ago)

Did Dean Macey manage to get the Canvey Island anthem played yesterday?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 11:33 (twenty years ago)

Something by Chantelle, perhaps?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 12:58 (twenty years ago)

Nigel Quashie and David Johnson play for Scotland, for example, neither of whom have, to my knowledge, spent any time playing in the Scottish league

What difference does that make? Has Owen Hargreaves ever played in the English League? Nigel Quashie plays for Scotland because he has a Scottish grandmother, not because he's a foreigner who picked a country it was easy to get a game for. Also, who's David Johnson?

This topic, incidentally, is touched on in this thread as well (world cup-ees who claim dubious provenance).

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 23 March 2006 00:38 (twenty years ago)

There's an Australian guy repping for Malta in the Comm games this year.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 23 March 2006 02:52 (twenty years ago)

Also, wasnt that Aussie winter olympics snowboard medallist a Canadian?

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 23 March 2006 02:52 (twenty years ago)

Nigel Quashie plays for Scotland because he has a Scottish grandmother, not because he's a foreigner who picked a country it was easy to get a game for.

Are you talking about Nigel Quashie's motivation for choosing to play for Scotland or about the rules, Ailsa?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 23 March 2006 07:59 (twenty years ago)

Ailsa, I was commenting on pfunkboy's comment above when I mentioned about players playing for Scotland who didn't play there.

David Johnson is a Nottingham Forest striker who was born in Jamaica. The story goes that on hearing he had a choice of home nations, he 'pledged his future' to Scotland but never actually played for them.

As for Quashie, I was obviously just wrong. Sorry.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 23 March 2006 09:41 (twenty years ago)

I can't imagine why anyone would choose to play for the Scottish football team these days!

― Dadaismus, the Male Poster (Dada), Thursday, 23 March 2006 10:27 (twenty years ago)

Nicky Campbell is quite rude about Mr Nicol in today's Guardian. Says you can't pick and choose your nationality like that, and he should be ashamed of himself.

Right next to it he has a second piece in which he says how great it is that English kids with grandparents from Pakistan will be supporting the tourists in the cricket this summer.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:18 (twenty years ago)

Are you talking about Nigel Quashie's motivation for choosing to play for Scotland or about the rules, Ailsa?

Both, but I was mostly pointing out Daniel Giraffe's error that he fell under the category set out in the original post.

Scotland need all the help they can get, anyone decent who wants to play for us is OK by me right now.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 23 March 2006 18:31 (twenty years ago)

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