Chinese Whispers and Lazy Journalism Embarrass FIFA and Everton

The wheels of the 'Arteta for England' bandwagon came off in spectacular fashion this week. Despite having not and never have being eligible for a British national team there has been a clamour from people in British media to have Mikel Arteta play on the international stage for England. Finally, after the years of speculation, has from the Football Association has spoken out -albeit anonymously.

The Press Association report that an FA spokesperson told them: "It is our understanding of the FIFA rules, that Arteta does not qualify to play for England."

The Basque Mikel Arteta has played for Spain at U16, U17, U18 and U21 level for Spain winning both the U16 European Championship and the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup in 1999. He was part of 2003 Spain U21 squad that failed to qualify for the U21 European Championships and Olympics and has featured alongside Pepe Reina, Iker Cassillas, Vicente and Fernando Torres at youth internationals.

The rule was first introduced by FIFA on 19 October 2003, it stated:

"A Player may exercise this right to change Associations only if he has not played at “A” international level for his current Association and if, at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition of any other category, he already had such nationalities."

It has since been reworded slightly but the point remains.

"Article 18

1. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several representative teams due to nationality, he may, only once, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches to the Association of another country of which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions:

(a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition at “A” international level for his current Association, and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current Association, he already had the nationality of the representative team for which he wishes to play."

In addition there was an agreement between the Football Associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales that they would not cap non-British nationals. Nacho Novo, the Spanish forward missed out on an international career with Scotland because of the agreement.

In plain English, Arteta needed to have a British bloodline or passport at the time he was playing for Spain at youth levels. The ruling was re-written because some players rushed in to play international level without thinking about the consequences of what it may have on their future international career as they'd be tied to that nation for the duration of the career.

On the 12th August, TalkSport - a national radio station in UK had a three hour phone-in show about whether non-British players should play for England (and Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

At one point they asked England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard whether he felt Arteta should play for England seeing as he now met what he was told the requirements were (British/England citizenship having spent the required 5 years in England - his time at Scotland does not count).

Gerrard was taken back by the question and asked whether Arteta had even announced he'd like to play for England. He was told by the TalkSport presenter that he had not but was eligible. Reassured, Gerrard went on to say that "I'd love to see Arteta in the England team". That quote was reported in several national newspapers over the course of the following days. Embarrassingly for FIFA, FIFA.com even published the story.

Arteta was interviewed on national television and he simply said he'd wait to see if the FA approach him. Arteta didn't know about the ruling either it seems.

Arteta said: "The situation is the same as it has always been, no-one has contacted me about it and I said really clearly last week my thoughts about it. I said it once and I'm going to repeat myself - if that opportunity comes I will consider it very seriously."

David Moyes, Everton manager said it was for the FA to clarify the details then approach the player if they wanted him to represent England. Inexplicably, the Daily Mirror have claimed Capello is red-faced over the situation mere days after debating whether Arteta should play for England.

Arguably Arteta's club, Everton [1][2] should be the most embarrassed about publishing the story because as the official source of information on Everton players, they seemingly never researched to see whether Arteta was actually eligible for England merely following other media outlet's bad example and secondly because it was the same FIFA Statute Article that Everton midfielder Tim Cahill had used to allow him to change national allegiance from Samoa to Australia back in 2004!