# What prevents international-sports "free agency?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-prevents-international-sports-free-agency/826392>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [December 19, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-prevents-international-sports-free-agency/826392 "2018-12-19T22:22:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-prevents-international-sports-free-agency/826392/1 "2018-12-19T22:22:39Z")

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Suppose Spain wanted to build a soccer superteam for the next World Cup cycle and offered multi-hundred-million-euro contracts to Mbappe, Pogba, Modric, Manzukich, Kane, etc. along with “fast-track citizenship.” It would certainly be considered extremely tasteless, but would there be anything in FIFA or IOC rules that would expressly ban such tactics?

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**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-prevents-international-sports-free-agency/826392/2 "2018-12-19T22:45:41Z")

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FIFA have overturned results where players they consider not qualified play internationals.

For players that haven’t already played international football their current rules are:

> [@](#):
>
> Any player … who assumes a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category or any type of football] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfils one of the following conditions:  
> a) He was born on the territory of the relevant association;  
> b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant association;  
> c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant association;  
> d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association.
> 
> — [FIFA.com](http://FIFA.com)

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**Author:** ![merrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@merrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrick)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-prevents-international-sports-free-agency/826392/3 "2018-12-19T23:50:04Z")

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The above rules, of course, only apply to players who have _not_ played for their previous country (which would exclude all those in the original post).

Once a player has appeared in a senior, competitive game (not a friendly or youth game) for one country, the only way they can represent another country is if they involuntarily lose their previous nationality (e.g. following the break-up of Yugoslavia or the USSR)