Bloodline To Be Basis For Eligibility to Scottish Team

Written by Smithy on November 1st, 2008

There has been much debate in recent days about the issue of eligibility to play for Scotland. The FIFA regulations state that a player who has a British passport can play for one of the Home Associations if he or she is eligible, whereas a gentleman's agreement we have with the other Home Associations states that players should be picked on the basis of a blood line.

We have spoken with the other Home Associations and can confirm that it is our collective intention to honour the Gentleman's agreement and that, subsequently, players will only be eligible to play for Scotland if they qualify through the blood route.

Scottish FA Chief Executive Gordon Smith said:

"There has been some confusion and much debate in recent days about whether or not Nacho Novo can play for Scotland.

"On one hand the FIFA regulations say that George Burley can pick eligible players who hold a British passport - and on the other we have the gentlemen's agreement with the other Home Associations that says that we will pick players based on their blood line.

"I have today sought to clarify the issue. We have had discussions with the other associations in the past couple of days and I've found out that everyone is adhering to our agreement and that, subsequently, we're all going down the line that will be bloodline at the moment.

"Now at some stage in the future one or more of us may change our opinion on that - we may get together and change our decision and go for the full FIFA regulation - but at the moment, we're all sticking to the gentleman's agreement."

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