I don't understand why the regulation 7 would specify from 18 years of age and upward - is FIFA attempting to thwart a worldwide football child prodigy smuggling ring to the Middle East?
Pretty much nail on the head.
So the way out of that (prevented from playing until 23) is you can request FIFA for a nationality transfer - as that's what the Australian example shows. But I still don't see where that situation is actually covered in the regs...it seems very unclear...because that part of the regs deals with the Winston Reid example where you have already played for another country
As explained earlier section 7 is really geared to players that have played for another country so does not apply to Wynne. he and others come under an earlier section which states that they have to have an NZ passport and lived in the Country for two years!
No. Section 6 refers to players who can represent more than one national team contemporaneously (e.g. if Deklan was born in SA, but had a NZ parent, Marco is a good example of this).
But for FIFA purposes, Deklan has to change from one nationality (SA) to another (NZ) in accordance with the regulations under Section 7. Deklan does not currently qualify under these regulations, but can be granted eligibility under the exceptions policy if NZF can demonstrate that the granting of eligibility would not breach the spirit of the regulation (and a pretty good case for that can be made). This is a standard procedure that any national association is (or at least should be) aware of, and as noted here in this thread, there have been plentiful examples of other national associations following this procedure without any problems and ensuring eligibility of players in question.
The fact that we're not waving FIFA's exemption certificate in OFC's face makes me think we fudgeed this up.