AHC/WI: soccer players allowed to transfer from one national team to another

Equatorial Guinea gave citizenship to a lot of foreign footballers who had no family ties or other links to the country in order to do better in international football. But they've been criticised big time for that.
 
Wouldn't the big European teams be able to benefit more? They would be able to spend more than anyone else (apart from maybe China) on the large transfer fees. They have all of the best players in the world living in their countries for years, with many gaining permanent residency.

England could sign the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, etc. Spain could sign Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez. France could nab Neymar, Angel de Maria and the whole of the PSG team.

This would probably skew things even more towards the larger European teams like in club football.
 
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Would there have to be a contract type of situation like in the clubs? If not then things get intresting when Zlatan Ibrahimovich reaches the top tier of international stars and every country wants him around 2010 and Sweden can say "Sure, give us 100 million Euros and we can talk" and then Italy spends that money.

It could get really ugly once Qatar gets into the mix and offer 100 million Euros for big stars and 50-80 million for minor stars.

Brazil would become the richest FA easily.
 

Ak-84

Banned
Doubt it changes much. Players were permitted to transfer allegiance reletivley easily pre 1980’s and what happened? Not much of note. DiStetano played for Colombia as well as Spain and accomplished fuck all and Puskas’s Spanish appearances were poor.

While fans might argue about the quality of club v country; let’s face it, even now for players, there are few greater Honours than to play for their country. Note how CR7 ran raggard for Portugal in Euro2016, and how Neymar was determined to win Olympic gold for Brazil, not even a full international. And Messi refused to play for Spain.

Don’t see it happening.
 
Wouldn't the big European teams be able to benefit more? They would be able to spend more than anyone else (apart from maybe China) on the large transfer fees. They have all of the best players in the world living in their countries for years, with many gaining permanent residency.

England could sign the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Romain Lukakuku, Alexis Sanchez, etc. Spain could sign Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez. France could nab Neymar, Angel de Maria and the whole of the PSG team.

This would probably skew things even more towards the larger European teams like in club football.
Who is Roman Lukakuku?
 
I feel some countries might look poorly upon it. I don't mean the states themselves so much as the populace. Poaching players from another country? Having immigrants who love to play joining the national team is one thing, but actively taking them from another country? I can actually see resentment in some countries if they feel their own players are being replaced in favor of foreigners. I imagine some states like the United Arab Emirates might happily go along with it so that their leaders can win trophies, but even then it might involve sticky situations with citizenship. Especially since many countries do not allow dual citizenship, except perhaps if you are born into them, such as if you are born on US soil and either or both your parents have citizenship form countries which base it upon being born to citizens. So many different systems for citizenship...
 
Not quite what is asked for in the OP but what if you were expected to represent the country in whose domestic league you played?
 
Doubt it changes much. Players were permitted to transfer allegiance reletivley easily pre 1980’s and what happened? Not much of note. DiStetano played for Colombia as well as Spain and accomplished fuck all and Puskas’s Spanish appearances were poor.
Don Alfredo also played for Argentina. László Kubala played for Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Spain.

The delightful Diego Costa played twice for Brazil in friendlies, but as they were not FIFA matches he was allowed to play for Spain.

With the post Cold War fragmentation of states, many players have appeared for more than one country.
 

Devvy

Donor
Considering players are not contracted to a country, I don't think you'd see transfer fees per se, but you might see nice "join fees" paid to players to enrol for a certain country.

Problem is that Ireland kinda forced things with 2 associations claiming to represent all of Ireland until FIFA addressed the situation in 1950. You had players playing for both FAI and IFA (I guess technically switching between on a match by match basis), which was widely considered unacceptable.

Most realistic option is a 2 year "cool down" policy; players are no longer bound to a national team after playing for them if they have not played in a match for 2 years. No financial implications, and means players can change teams if they really want by opting out for 2 years (and allowing them to do so with no repercussions domestically).
 
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