King: Biggest game of my career.

[m00nie]

Arteta and Almunia are now both eligible to play for England....

if you've played in a country for 5 years can't your play for te national team?

yea ok, seems if you claim citizenship in the country you can play for them if you have not played for another..

5 years or 3 if you marry a citizen of the country..

so on previous basis you all mainly would be happy with Almunia in goal for england??

[Haydos]

yea ok, seems if you claim citizenship in the country you can play for them if you have not played for another..

5 years or 3 if you marry a citizen of the country..

so on previous basis you all mainly would be happy with Almunia in goal for england??

No, because he's poor.

[lcfc_jme]

so on previous basis you all mainly would be happy with Almunia in goal for england??

Yes, because he's poor.

[Fox92]

I find it disgraceful (not disgraceul wrong word, not sure what word will describe it) about that rule that if you play in a country for 5 years you can play for them.

There is little difference between English and Welsh, compared to English and Spanish. I'd hate it if Arteta or Almunia or even Cudichini (I think he can as well) played for England. They arn't English. They are Spanish and Cudichini is Italian.

[The Year Of The Fox]

Its all bollox anyway

[CosbehFox]

Pretty sure he was. You become eligible to play for a country after you've lived there for years.

There's a gentlemen's agreement between the four nations of the UK on this rule which basically means no-one takes it up.

Take Arteta for example, now he's lived in this country he can claim citizenship but that citizenship is British. Mine and your passport is British, not English. If someone of Artera's ilk was take up the option, he'd be able to choose any of the four nations.

Hence in the UK, there has never been an example of choosing to play for one country through residence/citizenship.