I
F
passports
YOU

CAN (and marriagEs)
’
T

BEAT
of ConvEniEnCE
Cathy Harris investigates the scandal of international
teams bolstering their strength with players who were
not born and raised in the nations they now represent.
THEM
It is a practice which has been going on for checked and they were abiding by FIH rules.
years. We can all think of examples – from Leandro Negre, president of the EHF said:
the Kenyan athletes lured by unthinkable “We need to change the rules. You cannot
, riches in their own country and now running change your nationality to play for a country,
SIGN
for Qatar to the Chinese table tennis players and in some countries it’s very easy to do that
participating at the Olympics for other - especially where there’s money and political
nations. clout.”
Now the women’s hockey teams of

Azerbaijan, Italy and Netherlands Antilles
THEM
have all caused a few raised eyebrows after
‘Vast sums oF monEY’
strengthening their teams with players who
were quite clearly not born and raised in the
nations they now represent. Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of

These players may have no ancestral ties eastern Europe and western Asia is an oil
UP
to the countries they now represent but they rich state which gained independence from
are eligible to do so because in terms of the the Soviet Union in 1991. It has traditionally
! I
International Hockey Federation rules, if a excelled in wrestling, boxing, judo and karate
player has not turned out for one country for but is now investing vast sums in hockey.
S three years, they may represent another. A local company, Ata Holding, is one of the

IT
global partners of the FIH.
In the capital, Baku, there is a superb pitch

‘marrYinG loCal mEn’
and un-phased by the furore caused by the
FA
presence of the Koreans in Manchester, they
once again appear to have bolstered their
IR
Hockey players switching nationalities side with Koreans. One official at the Olympic
tend to be the exception rather than the qualifying tournament said: “I watched them

rule. However, the matter came to a head getting them off the bus one afternoon when
TO
when Azerbaijan arrived at the European they came to practise and it looked as though
championships in Manchester last August at least half their squad was Korean. A couple
with six Koreans in their squad. All six may even have been Chinese.”
BOOST had consecutive passport numbers after Team coach Tahir Zaman, a former Pakistan
apparently marrying local men. captain and two-time Olympian said:”We have
There was little the European Hockey a very limited pool of players, maybe 200. If
Federation could do. Their eligibility was other foreigners came in to the country and

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