Interview with James Kitching: “Our goal is to avoid the cases of excessive severity and hardship, whilst protecting the existence of the genuine link between player and association, and the sporting integrity of international competition”

Interview with James Kitching

Position when interviewed: Director of Football Regulatory, FIFA

Zurich – Switzerland

Can you explain the background to the recent reform of FIFA’s eligibility rules? What are the objectives?

The rules governing eligibility to participate for representative teams have not undergone a significant review since 2008. It was decided after the FIFA Congress 2019 to establish a Technical Working Group to examine and modernise the rules.

The Technical Working Group identified six core principles (objectives) underpinning the rules. These have been published for the first time in the Commentary published in January 2021:

“no nationality, no eligibility”;
“equal treatment of...

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Interview with James Kitching: “Our goal is to avoid the cases of excessive severity and hardship, whilst protecting the existence of the genuine link between player and association, and the sporting integrity of international competition”

Can you explain the background to the recent reform of FIFA’s eligibility rules? What are the objectives?

Why not join us?

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