| International Eligability And How It Ruined Test Football |
International eligibility is one of the most polarizing issues in the game today. While there are many arguments about who national sides select to play for them, one thing can be agreed on.
The current situation is not good enough. New rules need to be drawn up and adhered to and the people running the game need to make a stand and show some leadership in this area.
Here is a look at international eligibility in Rugby League. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.
Issues Surrounding Eligibility
It would be foolish to look at eligibility in Rugby League as a black and white issue. It is one of the biggest gray areas in the game today.
So what are some of the factors that come into play in regards to what nation a team plays for?
Obviously if you are born in Australia, New Zealand or England, and you go on to play for your place of birth, no one has a problem with that.
Qualification via residency does have its issues though. This comes into play when a player has lived in a country for 3 years or more and almost always effects only Australia and New Zealand.
I think its fair to say that people don't have an issue if a player was born in another country but is raised in his newly adopted nation. However what fans do take issue with is when we see residency used for players such as Brent Webb (New Zealand) who was born and raised in Queensland and would have never played for New Zealand if A) he didn't play for the Warriors and B) was good enough to play for Australia.
Fans do not want to see players picking and choosing who they play with based on who they can get a start with. They don't want to see second rate Australians realizing they will never play for Australia and therefore selecting to play for another nation, a second best option.
Then there is the elite of our game who come from the Pacific Islands who choose to play for Australia or New Zealand due to the fact that they will never get an opportunity to play for their nation of berth because of the lack of fixtures and exposure for these nations.
If a player such as Petero Civoneciva decided to commit to play with Fiji for his entire career, the sad fact is the 2000 World Cup would have been the complete sum of his entire international career.
With the incentive of regular Test football and even State Of Origin available to such players, is there any decision to make when it comes to who they decide to represent?
If its a choice of having a long, high profile representative career with a top Rugby League nation, or playing a token game once every 7 years that no one ever hears about, the choice is easy.
I don't blame the player for making a decision such as this, in a professional sport, its just bushiness. I completely blame the games administration for not only allowing the international game to fall into such a situation, but then making it so easy (In some instances encouraging players) to align with a top Rugby League nation instead.
The Worst Offenders
There are three governing bodies that have made the eligibility rules the farce they are today, and one of them may surprise you.
The New Zealand Rugby League for decades has selected players born in the Pacific Islands. In recent seasons the inclusion of Australian born and raised Brent Webb was seen as a complete farce.
Their eligibility rorts however came to a head when Australian born and raised Nathan Fien was selected to play for New Zealand despite the fact he didn't qualify at all (Fien produced evidence his great grandmother was a New Zealander and despite the fact that does not come under the eligibility rules, the NZRL played him in the side knowing it was an illegal move).
The Queensland Rugby League have been the worst offender of all, selecting the PNG Test captain in Adrian Lam in 1995, 2 Fijians in Loti Tuqiri and Petero Civoneceva and New Zealanders Tonie Carroll, Brad Thorn, Craig Smith and Karmichael Hunt, all in the last ten years of State Of Origin football.
The perception that "If you are good enough and we need you, you are eligible" prevails within the Queensland Rugby League who will go to any lengths to select the best players they possibly can, as long as they beat New South Wales.
Backing up this farce is the Australian Rugby League who state that you have to be eligible to play State Of Origin football to be eligible to play for Australia. This means they pass the buck, not taking any responsibility for the foreigners who who have pulled on the Green and Gold jersey in recent years.
The Ultimate Cause
The ultimate cause of the eligibility farce in Rugby League is a complete lack of leadership by the ARL, NZRL, RFL, QRL and IRLF, the latter of which is a little more than a letter head used collectively by the governing bodies for Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.
The short sighted idea to allow any player to play for any team in the 2000 World Cup led to instant rot of the international game and the rules governing eligibility.
We saw Australian's and New Zealanders litter 15 of the 16 teams that took part in the competition. Fans didn't buy it, the media didn't buy it, sponsors didn't buy it and a competition that had been in place for 46 years was trashed in one of the biggest sporting farces in recent memory.
After the 2000 World Cup, the lack of leadership continued as over 100 "international" players had laid waste to the eligibility rules and it seemed no rules at all were in place.
It was the easy option to pay no attention to eligibility rules, and the people running the game embraced it with open arms.
The Outcome
Today what we see is the results of the 2000 disaster. Elite players can pick and chose who they play for.
The simple fact is that there is nothing standing in the way of an elite player playing for any nation they choose, and this will continue until the games administration is removed and true rules are put in place.
Examples Of The Farce
Here is a look at the most extreme cases of of the failure of eligibility rules to be adhered to. Note that this list only include players that swapped national teams and does not include many instances where Australian, English, New Zealand and Pacific Islands players played for a nation not only not of their birth, but also one they did not or had never resided in.
Tonie Carroll was born in New Zealand and played for Queensland in the late 1990's. Not being up to the mark, Carroll then chose to play for New Zealand in the 2000 World Cup. Later, Carroll then was allowed to play for Australia against New Zealand.
Petero Civoneceva and Loti Tuqiri both played for Fiji in the 2000 World Cup before playing for Queensland and later Australia, with Civoneceva becoming one of the most capped forwards in Australian Test history.
Luke Ricketson played for Ireland in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New South Wales and Australia.
Hazem Elmasri played for Lebanon in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New South Wales and Australia.
Willie Mason played for Tonga in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New South Wales and Australia.
Ali Lauitiiti played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
David Solomona played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
Kevin Iro played for New Zealand before playing with the Cook Islands in the 2000 World Cup.
Danny Williams played for Ireland in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for Queensland.
Richard Villisanti played for Tonga in the 2000 World Cup before playing for Australia in 2003.
Brent Kite played for Tonga in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New South Wales and Australia.
Monty Beetham played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
Henry Faafili played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
Jerry Seu Seu played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
Kevin Campion played for Ireland in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for Queensland.
Francis Meli played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
David Barnhill played for New South Wales and Australia before playing with Ireland in the 2000 World Cup.
Joe Gulavao played for Samoa in the 2000 World Cup before going on to play for New Zealand.
Michael Withers played for Ireland in the 2000 World Cup, before being selected in a Great Britain squad before being dropped because he was an Australian.
Nathan Fein played for Queensland before playing for New Zealand in 2006 despite the fact he didn't qualify under any of the lose rules governing eligibility. He was later dropped because of this breaking of the almost non existent rules, the New Zealand side stripped of points and the head of the NZRL forced to stand down.
|
|
| Comments |
|
No Comments have been Posted.
|
|
| Post Comment |
|
Please Login to Post a Comment.
|
|
|
| Login |
Not a member yet? Click here to register.
Forgotten your password? Request a new one here.
|
|
| Users Online |
 Guests Online: 2
No Members Online
Registered Members: 127
Unactivated Members: 18
Newest Member: UnionSucks
|
|
| NRL Expansion Race |
1. South East Queensland
2. Gosford/North Sydney
3. New Zealand
4. Perth
5. Central Queensland
6. Adelaide
7. Papua New Guinea |
|
|
