Change of nationality
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Change of nationality by participants in international sporting events has been the subject of academic study. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Nationality in sporting events describes the affiliation of a participant in an international sporting event with one or more nations, typically as a member or potential member of a national team. The participant's sporting nationality is often the same as their citizenship at birth, but many sports have rules that allow participants to change nationalities, add a nationality, or represent a country to which they have limited ties through birth or ancestry.
A participant in a sporting event may have a sporting nationality without necessarily being a member of a national team.
In athletics, World Athletics eligibility rules [1] define which member nation or nations an athlete may represent. Eligibility to represent a nation typically derives from legal citizenship, attained either through birth of the participant or a recent ancestor, or through residence, marriage, or other means. World Athletics also maintains eligibility rules related to new countries, countries that no longer exist, or countries that change their affiliation with the organization, and reviews requests for transfers of allegiance made by athletes. There is typically a multi-year waiting period for athletes who request a transfer of allegiance.
In association football, FIFA maintains eligibility rules for participants in international competitions. In 2004, FIFA amended its wider policy on international eligibility, ruling that players must be able to demonstrate a "clear connection" to a country that they had not been born in but wished to represent. This ruling explicitly stated that, in such scenarios, the player must have at least one parent or grandparent who was born in that country, or the player must have been resident in that country for at least two years. [2] The residency requirement for players lacking birth or ancestral connections with a specific country was extended from two to five years in 2008. [3]
The Fédération Équestre Internationale regulates sport nationality for equestrians. [4]
Participants in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country (formally, the National Olympic Committee) that they are representing at the Games. [5] Like World Athletics, the International Olympic Committee's charter contains provisions for participants to change allegiances, and rules related to changes in the national status of states and territories.
In addition to rules related to birth and biological ancestry, World Rugby, the governing body for rugby union, specifies that if a player has been legally adopted under the laws of the relevant country, descent is traced through the adoptive parent(s). [6]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2025) |
Change of nationality by participants in international sporting events has been the subject of academic study. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]