EXTRA TIME with Vusumuzi Mourinho Ndlovu - Is FIFA shifting goalposts

Naturalisation is taking centre stage mostly in Europe but much to my surprise FIFA seems to be the catalyst on this deed.

If this trend is anything to go by, then there is certainly a method to ensure that you never hit a dry spell talent-wise because you can always import players you may need for particular positions.

Article 18 of FIFA’s Laws reads: Any player who is a naturalised citizen of a country by virtue of that country’s laws shall be eligible to play for that national or representative team of that country. FIFA does not care if a nation grants citizenship on basis of parentage, regardless of place of birth. If a player is deemed citizen under a particular country’s law, he is eligible to play for that country.

Players with dual nationality, who had already played for a country’s national team at junior levels were only allowed to switch loyalties until the age of 21. The age limit has been removed but players who have played for the senior national team are barred from switching.

Recently, Brazilian born Internationale Milan midfielder Thiago Motta fired in a winner for Italy’s European championships qualifier against Slovenia. With less than 5 years playing or living in Italy, Motta got the Italian citizenship because of his grandfather who was an Italian.

However, Motta’s case baffles in that he has 2 senior caps with Brazil. Having played for their U-17, he played for Brazil at the 2003 CONCACAF GOLD CUP. Due to the fact that the Selecao was participating in the FIFA Confederations Cup, Brazil sent an U-23 team to represent them at the GOLD CUP. Motta was part of that U-23 team that that played as a senior national team.

The Azzuri capitalised on Dunga’s reluctance to select Motta for Brazil and hooked him up. They probably dangled a sweet juicy carrot in front of him. Who knows? With the absence of Andrea Pirlo, Motta may form a formidable partnership with Danielle de Rossi in the engine room. Cesare Prandelli, the Azzuri coach recently said, “Motta has maintained the Brazilian technique and acquired a European mentality.

As to how Motta plays for Italy after playing for Brazil remains a puzzle that can only be solved by the Zurich based Sepp Blatter led federation.

Romario, The Hero Is Talking.

Brazil has 190 million individuals. They had over 6000 registered football clubs at different leagues and levels. They boast of 16 million registered football professionals of whom about 10 000 play football outside Brazil. They do not have a single man who has international experience to coach Brazil. International experience? They must be joking.

People who coached Brazil before, like Mario Zagallo, Carlos Alberto Parreira, the list is long, either do not want to do it again or they are now too old. How do you explain failure to so many people when you have so much resources to fight your cause?

The international experience part given in the difficulty the Brazilian Football Association becomes a laughable point given that they fired Dunga. Brazil gave the job to Dunga knowing he had no coaching experience at all (NB omission of INTERNATIONAL here). Dunga won qualification and came to the 2010 FIFA World Cup playing international football which the South Americans cried was unBrazilian. If they want an internationally experienced coach, none is better than Dunga at the moment.

Brazil can only have a Brazilian coach who plays the Brazilian way, only locally. I believe also, he needs to select a locally based squad. These players will do it the original Samba way. For the record, Dunga  won Copa America title, the Confederation Cup and topped the standings of the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup finals.

Romario, who combined well with Bebeto back in the days, believes the 1994 World Cup winning captain, Dunga was unfairly treated. One of my favourite players of all time, one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the game was in Singapore where he opened the Brazilian Football Exhibition.

He said, "Everyone criticised Dunga, but actually, he wasn't wrong. That's how football is played nowadays. Teams are now very organised in a European-style. But as the next World Cup is in Brazil, and with a lot of renewal and young players coming through in our national squad, and with the home support of the Brazilians, we will play much better."

I always mention my amazing first hand experience watching the man play at the twilight of his career, that Romario, who scored 55 times in 70 international games and a thousand other goals, he roamed the 18 yard box for 90 minutes and only touched the ball 4 times, in November 1999, and he scored a hat-trick.

Mano Menezes has since been appointed Brazil coach and is expected to unearth to the world a new generation of players like Neymar and Ganso from Santos.

Romario de Souza, who played at the Zimbabwe National Sports Stadium in the late 198os with PSV Eindhoven against Racing Sports Club of Argentina in an international charity match has a team he calls America and is running for a seat in the Brazilian Parliament.

Romario, The Hero Is Talking.

Brazil has 190 million individuals. They had over 6000 registered football clubs at different leagues and levels. They boast of 16 million registered football professionals of whom about 10 000 play football outside Brazil. They do not have a single man who has international experience to coach Brazil. International experience? They must be joking.

People who coached Brazil before, like Mario Zagallo, Carlos Alberto Parreira, the list is long, either do not want to do it again or they are now too old. How do you explain failure to so many people when you have so much resources to fight your cause?

The international experience part given in the difficulty the Brazilian Football Association becomes a laughable point given that they fired Dunga. Brazil gave the job to Dunga knowing he had no coaching experience at all (NB omission of INTERNATIONAL here). Dunga won qualification and came to the 2010 FIFA World Cup playing international football which the South Americans cried was unBrazilian. If they want an internationally experienced coach, none is better than Dunga at the moment.

Brazil can only have a Brazilian coach who plays the Brazilian way, only locally. I believe also, he needs to select a locally based squad. These players will do it the original Samba way. For the record, Dunga  won Copa America title, the Confederation Cup and topped the standings of the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup finals.

Romario, who combined well with Bebeto back in the days, believes the 1994 World Cup winning captain, Dunga was unfairly treated. One of my favourite players of all time, one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the game was in Singapore where he opened the Brazilian Football Exhibition.

He said, "Everyone criticised Dunga, but actually, he wasn't wrong. That's how football is played nowadays. Teams are now very organised in a European-style. But as the next World Cup is in Brazil, and with a lot of renewal and young players coming through in our national squad, and with the home support of the Brazilians, we will play much better."

I always mention my amazing first hand experience watching the man play at the twilight of his career, that Romario, who scored 55 times in 70 international games and a thousand other goals, he roamed the 18 yard box for 90 minutes and only touched the ball 4 times, in November 1999, and he scored a hat-trick.

Mano Menezes has since been appointed Brazil coach and is expected to unearth to the world a new generation of players like Neymar and Ganso from Santos.

Romario de Souza, who played at the Zimbabwe National Sports Stadium in the late 198os with PSV Eindhoven against Racing Sports Club of Argentina in an international charity match has a team he calls America and is running for a seat in the Brazilian Parliament.