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Listed below are comments made by Red-Russian between Monday, 17th August 2009 and Monday, 19th October 2009.

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Lessons to learn for Colombia & Ecuador 10:31am on 19 Oct 2009 I echo number 1's praise - coverage of the Argentine soap opera has been overwhelming and it was refreshing to see someone take a step back and look at other aspects of the South American qualifying campaign.
Grafite poses threat to Man Utd 4:24pm on 28 Sep 2009 Babaquice rather missed the point, didn't he?
Grafite poses threat to Man Utd 11:25am on 28 Sep 2009 @ 4

It's an interesting question. Why does Brazil channel its socio-economic conditions into becoming the world's greatest footballer factory, while other countries of similar size and wealth have not? Perhaps it is something to do with football being established as a great nation-defining tradition, which is not quite the case in Russia, Nigeria and Mexico, however passionately the national teams are supported in those countries. Maybe if Brazil hadn't reached success in the 50s and 60s this would have declined.

As it is, the Brazilians have 190m people, the opportunity to play, the motivation to make it out of the favelas AND a pantheon of great players to emulate - this collective memory surely says "yes, you can" as well as acting as a reference point about what to do with a football.

I suppose there must also be broader factors that make south America more generally per capita over-achievers when it comes to football that also benefit Brazil in comparison to the other countries mentioned. Perhaps this has something to do with football arriving and thriving fairly early and the mixed populations.
Club v country takes new twist 4:29pm on 17 Aug 2009 ...that first sentence should have read 'If by "you" you mean me'
Club v country takes new twist 4:25pm on 17 Aug 2009 Irish_Londoner (63)

If by "you" you me mean and my comment number 60, you ought to be a bit more careful about what you read into other people's opinions.

First of all, I didn't make any comment suggesting Aiden McGeady's links with Ireland were minor. What I said was: "That's fair enough and I personally think it's right that heritage allows players to represent the country of their parents / grandparents."

Secondly, where on earth did you leap from me pointing out that not all footballers make this kind of decision for reasons of their identity to the idea that they are regarded as traitors. I certainly don't subscribe to that notion. All I was trying to say was that some people make these sorts of decisions for reasons of a strong association with the country of their ancestors and some do it for pragmatic reasons. I'm sure many have a mixture of both, but the Anglo-Irish players I mentioned seem to me to be much closer to the second camp. I seem to remember Townsend doing the punditry on an England game and using the word "we". Once again, this isn't something that sickens me. I imagine I'd do the same if it gave me the opportunity to play an international football match. But it's false to argue that every footballer who has embraced his Irish (or African for that matter) ancestry has done so because of a pre-existing identification.
Club v country takes new twist 3:43pm on 17 Aug 2009 Irish Londoner

That's fair enough and I personally think it's right that heritage allows players to represent the country of their parents / grandparents.

At the same time, I don't think we can claim that the likes of Andy Townsend, Mark Lawrenson and Tony Cascarino had a strong connection with their Irish heritage. I don't advocate changing the rules, but it's honest to face the fact that there are players who have embraced the country of some of their ancestors primarily because this represented their only chance of playing at the international level.
Club v country takes new twist 1:25pm on 17 Aug 2009 thechuckuk (47)

I think "place of birth" is too crude. What if you move to a country as a child and grow up without any connection with the one you were born in? It seems to me fairer to define things in terms of whether the move to another country was made for footballing reasons. If you move as a professional footballer or to a club's youth academy, I think you 'belong' to your country of birth.

The France '98 analogy is interesting. I think you'll find that more of that squad were born in France than you imagine. As for Vieira, his family left Senegal when he was 8 and according to Wikipedia he didn't see the country again until he was 27. I don't think you will brand an 8 year-old a 'deserter' and Vieira surely had a right to consider himself French after spending his formative years there. Thuram comes from Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region of France (and has deputies sitting in Paris). Desailly arrived in France at the age of four. Karambeu was from New Caledonia, another French-ruled dependency, which only became a FIFA member in 2004. Henry and Zidane were born in France.

I can't see much pillaging in that - and I can see what looks like a fair reflection of French metropolitan society.
Club v country takes new twist 1:04pm on 17 Aug 2009 hackerjack (41)

I agree that what you point out is a uniquely UK aspect, where the Almunia case differs from those of Brazilians representing everyone else. My argument is that - aside from this local complication - there is a broader principle at stake and on an international scale this freedom to represent an adopted country futher warps the game in favour of wealthier countries.
Club v country takes new twist 12:57pm on 17 Aug 2009 RE 39

When you think about Brazil, the issue isn't so clear cut: they're a superpower and hardly facing a catastrophic resource drain. But if you think of African countries that have lost stars, it becomes an ethical dilemma well beyond the abstract value 'credibility of the sport'. If the cream of talented Africans is coming to Europe, and coming at an ever younger age, then there will be more and more top players who could have been leading Mali, Senegal, Nigeria to glory but end up representing France or Poland instead.

Is that right? I think it's great (for us) that we have excellent African footballers playing in our country, but it has to be unjust if we not only deprive their home public of the chance of watching them play live, but also get to expropriate them for our national sides on the basis of the wages they can earn in our leagues.
Club v country takes new twist 11:58am on 17 Aug 2009 Is it against house rules to state that my previous, deleted post made a reference to alleged corruption in FIFA? I set against this contention (from which the BBC must of distance itself) the opinion that FIFA has no obvious interest in maintaing the status quo - since it doesn't profit in any discernible way from 'migration' among national football sides, and indeed the majority of its constituency of football associations might have reasons to support greater regulation.

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