| Rogorn |
| (member) |
| 15/07/2008 19:20 |
Re: Double Standards?
|
Quote:
Though Emerson has been banned by FIFA, an appeal by the Iraqis to get the March 26 result overturned was rejected on the grounds that all appeals must be submitted within a designated time limit, which had elapsed. Awarding the three points to Iraq would have sent them through to the next round of qualifiers at the expense of Qatar. Instead, Iraq's football future has been destroyed on spurious technical grounds.
Deadlines are not 'spurious technical grounds', otherwise Justice would never have any kind of closure at all. Nor is FIFA's fault, or Qatar's, that while England can live with missing tournaments, Iraq choose not to.
Having said this, FIFA would do well to carry out their own monitoring of passport and identity switchers, and penalise both individuals and FAs when caught out. However, be careful when doing this: lying about one's age or identity is cheating, and a crime. Naturalising someone is not, and a country can naturalise anyone they please, because that's part of their sovereign right. Let's get the issues sorted out first.