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Whatsapp Timor-Leste national team footballers Paulo César Silva Martins and Ramon De Lima Saro celebrate a goal against Malaysia. Both players were born in Brazil.



As the dust settles on the Essendon doping case, could the Socceroos be the next Australian team hauled before the Court of Arbitration for Sport? Jack Kerr reports on FIFA's legally ambiguous rules around migrant players representing national football teams.

The Socceroos will play a pair of crucial World Cup qualifiers at home next week, but there's concern the team's campaign for Russia 2018 could be derailed because of questionable advice from football's governing body, FIFA.

The legality of these exemptions has not been scrutinised by any court.

One of the world's few experts in player eligibility laws says FIFA may have breached its own rules in order to allow countries like Australia, the USA and possibly even Qatar to field players who would otherwise have been ineligible.

These players have been used in World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, and if an opposing team were to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, there would be the potential for match results to be overturned.

Under FIFA's eligibility rules, unless they have immediate family connections there, a player needs to live in a country for five years as an adult before they can be picked to play.

The rule was intended to stop countries like Qatar and Togo buying up players from countries like Brazil to use in their own national teams. However, it now effectively functions as a long-term ban on players migrating.

To get around the unintended discriminatory aspects of these laws, FIFA has granted around a number of exemptions in recent years.

While the process of who gets exemptions and why is rather secretive, FIFA did recently say it has given around 40 exemptions, around half of them to players in Australia.

No legal basis for exemptions

However, expert in FIFA regulations believes there is no legal basis to these exemptions.

'Opposing teams may naturally challenge these exemptions,' says Yann Hafner, a sports lawyer based in Switzerland, who is currently completing a PhD on eligibility and nationality issues.

'This would be interesting from a legal perspective.

'The legality of these exemptions has not been scrutinised by any court.'

He says the Court of Arbitration for Sport would have the power to overturn the results if it found there was an issue.

A win by a team that has been found to have fielded an ineligible player is typically changed by FIFA to a 3-0 loss.

But New Zealand's Olympic men's team was recently disqualified from the Rio 2016 Olympics for fielding a player, Deklan Wynne, who migrated from South Africa aged 14.

NZ football authorities were said to be unaware exemptions were possible, or even necessary, for players like Wynne, who had previously played in the Under 20s World Cup without issue.

After he was used in an Olympic qualifier against Vanuatu, a complaint was lodged with the Oceania Football Confederation, who swiftly disqualified the Oly-Whites.

New Zealand has since applied for, and been granted, a number of exemptions, but remains disqualified from the Olympics.

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Whatsapp Deklan Wynne playing for New Zealand's U-20 side. After Vanuatu lodged a complaint about his eligibility, the New Zealand men's national team were banned from the Rio 2016 Olympic games.

Threat to Australian World Cup and US Olympic campaigns

Australia's national men's teams have long-relied on players of migrant background.

Current examples include Melbourne Victory youngsters Connor Pain (born in Hong Kong to British parents) and Thomas Deng, a Kenyan-born South Sudanese refugee who grew up in Adelaide. Both were called up during recent Olympic qualifiers.

While the Olyroos did not qualify for the Olympics, the Socceroos are still hopeful of making the World Cup, and recently called-up Polish-born goalkeeper Alex Cisak for a qualifier against Kyrgyzstan.

While he was an unused substitute in that match, it is likely players like Croatian-born Milos Degenek will be used in the next round of qualifiers.

The potential issue also impacts the US, who fielded exempted 19-year-old Gedion Zelalem in its recent successful Olympic qualifiers.

Zelalem was born in Germany to Ethiopian parents and migrated to the US as a child. At age 14, he moved to the UK to pursue a career in football and now plays with Arsenal.

FIFA rejected changes to rules

In 2011, the UAE proposed a change to the rules regarding migrant players, a move that was rejected comprehensively by the FIFA Congress.

The FFA was to bring a similar proposal to the 2013's Congress, but changed its mind at the last minute.

Later that year, Qatar fielded a number of players who do not appear to fit the eligibility criteria. Qatar was not on the recent FIFA list of countries that have received exemptions.

Player eligibility protest in East Timor

While the eligibility rules have had some impact on countries buying up players, the body has now also been asked to investigate what could be one of the major player importation scandals in the history of the game.

East Timor has brought in so many Brazilian players that is has been referred to as 'The Little Samba Nation'.

Following a drawn World Cup qualifier in Dili in October last year, Palestine protested that more than half of the Timorese side had no apparent right to play.

It is believed close to two dozen Brazilians have been given Timorese passports. Some have not even played for the Timorese national side.

However, having a Timorese passport may have made it easier for them to continue playing in the lucrative leagues of Asia, where there are caps on the number of non-Asian players clubs can field.

The Twitter bio of one such player even boasts of him having an 'Asian passport'. Five months since Palestine lodged its protest, the issue is still unresolved.

FIFA's inaction may prove costly to the Palestinians, whose hopes of reaching the next round of qualifiers would be significantly improved with a finding in their favour.

FIFA and the Qatar Football Association were contacted for comment.

Listen to the full report Journalist Jack Kerr questions how legally sound FIFA's eligibility laws are on The Law Report.

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