06-03-2012, 06:20 PM
Gary,
Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. I missed your post on my last read through the topic.
The reason I don’t believe the rules should be changed currently is because I know of no-one who the current rules are excluding from playing for Scotland that should be. If that were to change then I would be in favour of a rule change. The current rules have a balance of eligibility based on birth, parental birth, universal residency and having previously represented Scotland.
I can see your point regarding residency being the one requirement and the same for anyone but I think its a stretch that a lot of people wouldn’t be happy to lose the genealogy part of the eligibility criteria and I can think of a couple of players who would be excluded. I’m not sure how fair it would be to change the rules and exclude people who have already represented Scotland from representing us in the future.
At the heart of this for me is the following:
To my knowledge, all other sports who have changed their eligibility criteria was as the result of a change in their respective International Body’s regulations. There has been no such change in FIDE regulations so I don’t see what is precipitating this proposal and its not the same situation as other sports as this proposal alludes to.
Furthermore, if all countries were to change their eligibility rules to what is proposed it would allow players to be eligible to play for several countries (conceivably up to 4/5) which doesn’t seem right to me.
Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. I missed your post on my last read through the topic.
The reason I don’t believe the rules should be changed currently is because I know of no-one who the current rules are excluding from playing for Scotland that should be. If that were to change then I would be in favour of a rule change. The current rules have a balance of eligibility based on birth, parental birth, universal residency and having previously represented Scotland.
I can see your point regarding residency being the one requirement and the same for anyone but I think its a stretch that a lot of people wouldn’t be happy to lose the genealogy part of the eligibility criteria and I can think of a couple of players who would be excluded. I’m not sure how fair it would be to change the rules and exclude people who have already represented Scotland from representing us in the future.
At the heart of this for me is the following:
To my knowledge, all other sports who have changed their eligibility criteria was as the result of a change in their respective International Body’s regulations. There has been no such change in FIDE regulations so I don’t see what is precipitating this proposal and its not the same situation as other sports as this proposal alludes to.
Furthermore, if all countries were to change their eligibility rules to what is proposed it would allow players to be eligible to play for several countries (conceivably up to 4/5) which doesn’t seem right to me.
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional!