Pete Bailey: Since we were all busy working on the 1997 MLS Preview issue this past week, we aren’t going to have a normal Q&A session. However, we’ve received a number of questions about the citizenship of Steve Potts, a defender for West Ham United who was born in Hartford, Conn., so I thought I’d explain the Potts scenario and next week we’ll return to our regular Q&A sessions.
Although born in Connecticut, Potts IS NOT eligible to play for the United States because he was capped 11 times as an England youth player. It’s too bad, because he is a veteran who has made over 400 appearances for West Ham, and he would no doubt provide plenty of leadership and experience for the U.S. defense.
A player who participates on a country’s national youth team in a FIFA-sanctioned event (qualifying or finals of a FIFA world championship at any level) becomes qualified only to play for that country. This is apparently what happened with Steve Potts.
Players represent more than one country, assuming they have the appropriate citizenship papers, if the participation with the first team was in non-FIFA matches. That is why Espen Baardsen, who is the Tottenham Hotpsur No. 2 goalie right out of high school in California, was eligible to join Norway’s U-21 team this past fall (his parents are from Norway) after competing with the U.S. U-20s in non-FIFA matches in 1995. It same goes, in reverse, for Tampa Bay midfielder Martin Vazquez, capped for Mexico at the full international level during the time Mexico was banned from World Cup play but now playing for the U.S. national team.
We’ll answer more of your questions next Friday.