From: fbahg@nuscc.nus.sg (Himawan Gunadhi)
Subject: Re: Assimilated & re: Leeds v Stuttgart
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 02:08:43 GMT

In article <MNEWS.718273445.10121@gate.demon.co.uk> I.T.Marsh@man0507.wins.icl.co.uk (I.T.Marsh) writes:
>
>[ discussion about definition of ``assimilated'' player]
>Mark Hughes did not spend the early part of his career in England, he 
>originally played for Wrexham which as everyone knows is in his home country
>of Wales. Therefore he does not and never can qualify as an "assimilated"
>player. Being as he has already passed 19!

I thought that Hughes didn't qualify as an assimilated player because
he did not have five years unbroken service in England when he left for
Barcelona. He was signed by United (er, should I qualify that as Man Utd :-))
as a schoolboy and played for the Youth teams, so that wasn't the cause
of his ineligibility.

>I'm not sure about Ian Rush. He definitely spent the early part of his career
>in England (at Chester City). I'm not sure how his spell in Italy affects
>his qualification as I thought you had to have spent 5 consecutive years
>in the country of the club you are representing and I can't remember how
>long he's been back.

Rush qualified because he had played more than 5 years before going to
Juventus. Once you qualify, you've qualified for life. It doesn't matter
that he's not been back for 5 years.

>It doesn't matter if you have been in a country playing football for 10
>years. If you didn't spend 3 of those years at under 19 level you don't
>qualify as an assimilated player.

Well, not quite! Ryan Giggs hasn't played 5 years in England, in fact
he hasn't played 3 years at Youth level! But he qualifies as an
assimilated player! So does Ferguson's son, Darren. Clearly, a player is
still assimilated as long as he has played *all* his career, including
youth years, in one country! This allows a 16 or 17 year old to be
eligible. Man United didn't know of this! So they screwed up the first
leg of the CWC tie at Old Trafford, by excluding Giggs, since it was
thought that only Irwin and Blackmore qualified as assimilated.
In actual fact, 4 United players are assimilated, and 4 are foreigners.
Liverpool didn't know of Rush's eligibility until they called up UEFA.

>Finally as I said before even if Stuttgart hadn't brought any substitutes
>onto the pitch it wouldn't have mattered. They were breaking the rule
>by having more than 3 players in the squad.

This is correct -- you can have up to 5 non-nationals, with the
non-assimilated quota limited to 3. But you can have up to 5
assimilated players (with of course 0 non-assimilated). When UEFA first
announced the foreigner ruling (a few years back), I remember posting to
the net, warning of the problems that would arise. I think the chickens
have come home to roost.

Nonetheless, I think Stuttgart should have been expelled. There is no
way they should have had more than 3 non-assimilated players in the
squad to begin with! Of course I should mention that I hate Leeds :-)
-- 
Himawan Gunadhi                  	INTERNET: fbahg@nuscc.nus.sg
Dept of Decision Sciences      	 	BITNET  : fbahg@nusvm
National University of Singapore