FIFA rejects UAE's bid to relax footballer residency rule
FIFA has rejected the UAE’s attempt to speed up foreign-born footballers’ ability to change allegiance after just three years residency in a foreign country.
At present, foreign-born footballers over the age of 18 years old are allowed to switch their allegiance after five years residency in a country.
The UAE had sought to relax the rule and have the residency period reduced to three years. The move, UAE claimed would help smaller countries with large expatriate populations.
However, the motion only garnered support from 42 out of 153 FIFA members who voted at the FIFA Congress on Wednesday in Zurich.
The UAE delegation said the relaxing of the allegiance rules would have helped smaller countries compete at the top level of the game.
UAE football president Mohamed Al Rumaithi had argued change was good for countries trying to qualify for the World Cup.
"Especially for countries which have a small population," UAE football president Mohamed Al Rumaithi told the AFP news agency. "Along with local talents, we have many expatriate players."
The move comes just three years after FIFA increased the residency rule from two years to five years, with some delegates claiming the relaxing of the rule would open the door for richer nations to import skilled players from overseas with offers of citizenship.
The FIFA Congress was dogged by the ongoing issue of bribery and corruption and Sepp Blatter, who was relected president with 92 percent support, said the world soccer body faces danger and is “unstable” as it battles to combat the scandal.
Blatter, speaking at the start of FIFA’s congress in Zurich, was the sole candidate in the presidential election after Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew. Bin Hammam and fellow executive committee member Jack Warner were suspended as part of a corruption probe and deny wrongdoing. English and Scottish soccer bodies said the vote should be postponed.
“I thought that we were living in a world of fair play, mutual respect and discipline, and I must say this is not the case any longer,” Blatter, 75, said as he opened the congress. “It’s no longer the case because our pyramid of FIFA is suddenly unstable on its basis and there’s a danger.”
The scandal has roiled the sport and increased pressure on FIFA, which generates $4bn from its World Cup, to reform. Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, said his organisation had gone through similar problems. He said he spoke to delegates in Zurich as a “true lover of football.”
Bin Hammam, the Qatari head of soccer in Asia, withdrew his candidacy for the presidency amid accusations he tried to bribe Caribbean officials with $40,000 each in cash to vote for him.
