Not really, we attract these athletes due to the lifestyle in Australia, training facilities and opportunities. They attract athletes through nothing more than money.

Pathetic. We take this expedient position and our argument re Qatar starts going out the window.

Very unimpressed.

I'm not sure I'd want to be doing it with Soldiers :lol: But I don't see the problem with doing it in the sports arena. People are acting like other nations don't do it.

Also, how hilarious was Bob Katter's reaction?

Actually have no problem with them fast tracking sportspeople, or if nationality is important/can help in any other field.

Yep, we'll claim Russell Crowe when we count Australia's Oscars, and no one can stop us! :lol:

They're not in nationality eligibility defined competitions though.

I'm afraid the eligibility for the ACL might be different again, Brebner fell afoul of this IIRC.

We've got 4 months for Chris Bowen to fast-track the Wanderers foreign players for the ACL!

PS: FIFA don't give a shit about national citizenship, only length of time in-country.

Edited by macktheknife: 7/6/2013 06:32:14 PM

Not so relevant for the Socceroos as FIFA have their own rules for eligibility, but it'd be good for clubs getting players off the visa spots.

He's eligible this year anyway afaik

For the Socceroos the obvious one would be Adama Traore.

??? Would that be done for a writer, painter, singer or poet? Unlikely.

Also: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/cricket/hopes-of-fawad-ahmed-playing-in-ashes-series-in-england-hinge-on-new-legislation-being-passed/story-e6frfg8o-1226647593222

PAKISTAN legspinner Fawad Ahmed could join Australia's Ashes campaign as a result of citizenship law changes introduced to parliament today.

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Brendan O'Connor's bill will enable citizenship to be fast-tracked in special circumstances.

While O'Connor didn't mention Ahmed by name, he referred to "elite athletes" and government sources confirmed the leggie would be covered by the measure.

...now that Cricket Aus have helped get laws through, who can we fast track for the Socceroos, FIFA laws aside?



When the cricket community took up Fawad Ahmed's cause back in July last year, no one imagined he would end up pressing for Ashes selection.

His club, Melbourne University, saw a young man who was stressed about his asylum claim, whose friend (a fellow cricketer) had been killed by religious extremists in Pakistan, who was scratching out a living doing warehouse work, who happened to be an excellent leg spinner.

The club saw a chance to use the connections of a few of its old boys – who include Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and former ICC president Malcolm Gray – to help him.

Having followed Ahmed's journey closely over the past year, I am convinced that, had Ahmed been a pastry chef and not a former first-class cricketer, Melbourne University cricket president Derek Bennett would have gone to the same lengths to help him, and to ask that his refugee claim, initially rejected, be reconsidered by then immigration minister Chris Bowen.

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Is Ahmed a special case? Of course he is. His profession as a cricketer has given him advantages over other migrants who have to wait the full four years for Australian citizenship.

Can he make a difference to Australia's Ashes hopes? The selectors think so, or they would not have given Cricket Australia executives the green light to knock on the doors of politicians, and persuade them to change the laws so that he could be eligible for this winter's series in England.

Nationality has become a fluid concept in international sport, but Ahmed's case differs from most in the sense that he did not come to Australia to advance his cricket career, but to rebuild his life.

The same cannot be said for, say, Kevin Pietersen, who left South Africa in protest at the quota system with the specific intention of playing for England, or even Luke Ronchi, who saw a chance to return from Australia to the country of his birth and play international cricket for New Zealand.

Ultimately, what happens from here will be determined by how Ahmed bowls for Australia A against Ireland and Gloucestershire. As former chairman of selectors, leggie Trevor Hohns said last week, a quality leg-spinner is always an advantage against England.

No one should expect Ahmed to be the next Shane Warne, but in his three Sheffield Shield games for Victoria the 31-year-old suggested he can build pressure as few spinners in the post-Warne era have been able to.

He took 16 wickets at 28. Nathan Lyon is developing and deserves to start as the no.1 spinner, but the selectors' reaction to MS Dhoni's treatment of him in India suggests Ahmed has a genuine chance of making his debut.

Ahmed will be under pressure to show that the efforts to fast-track his citizenship were worth it.


Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/cricket/why-fawad-was-fasttracked-20130606-2ns2j.html#ixzz2VVKxyaRH