Eligibility Votes - March 2022

[Douglas Bryson]

I have a couple of concerns,

Why are we, seemingly, the only organisation in Scotland, as far as I can tell, that requires eligibility to be added to an already bloated constitution?

Surely putting such a thing into the constitution makes it now unavoidable that any entrants or team selections must prove with documentation that they are indeed eligible for playing for a Scottish title or being picked for a Scottish team.

Who gets to handle that admin?  I would also note that if passed before the primary and Secondary Championships next month the organisers would surely have to see documentary evidence of Scottishness before the event, wouldn't they?

Players establish their eligibility for championship and international play at the time they apply for a Scotland FIDE registration. Many players may be eligible for multiple countries eg they have mixed nationality parents. A player fixes their eligibility for FIDE status at the time they choose to be registered by a particular country. Once established as a SCO player they retain the right to be classed as a Scotland player for life. So for example a player who moved to Scotland as a child of non-Scottish parents and became SCO FIDE registered through residency would not lose that SCO status if they say moved to England to work (even although technically they would not be eligible if applying for a new SCO FIDE ID).  

The Scotland federation uses that SCO code as the marker by which a player is allocated all rights to Championship titles or International representation. Players are informed of the criteria born here, parentage, resident and they confirm they meet at least one of the requirements. They are then added to the FIDE server and allocated a FIDE ID. We assume that players are answering honestly and we do not check passports, council tax bills etc.

If a player already FIDE registered with another federation asks to transfer to Scotland we do require documentary evidence since FIDE will not process the transfer until that is supplied. Player seeking a transfer must of course already meet the criteria to be SCO registered. They must also meet any financial obligations involved in the transfer process. 

Parent was suggested as a new requirement so that CS has the permission to be handing over information to FIDE. The only information supplied is player name, year of birth and gender. Guardian could be added to the parent requirement.