Why does Dura have an apparent connection with Seattle Sounders?
It's clearly a mix-up with "Andrew Duran" who was a Seattle Sounders defender until they waived him to make room for another player in April this year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Duran
A mix-up seems to have been made in some football data base ESPN and MLS use, leading to this error being repeated all over the net on many football sites.
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Durante's eligibility for NZ:
In a worse case scenario FIFA have disqualified teams from competitions for fielding ineligible players:
- In a case in 2011, Fifa disqualified the Equatorial Guinea women's team from the London Olympics qualifying phase and suspended forward Jade Boho Sayo for two months over her disputed nationality.
- In August 2011, FIFA expelled Syria from the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification process following the appearance of George Mourad in a senior qualification match against Tajikistan. Mourad had made friendly match appearances for Sweden earlier in his career, but had not requested permission from FIFA to change national associations prior to playing for Syria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_eligibility_rules
- However, this year Burkina Faso , Gabon and Sudan have all been docked points during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers for using players deemed to be ineligible for various reasons - but not expelled from the competition...Equatorial Guinea are currently under investigation for fielding an ineligible player in an April qualifier where none of the Equatorial Guinea starting line-up was born there: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22092031
I think it will work in Durante's favour that he asked FIFA for permission to play for New Zealand months prior to taking the field (even if they didn't rule on it) and he fulfills all other FIFA requirements under Statute 17 with the five year continuous residency the only thing questioned. He fulfills the requirement to hold the permanent nationality of a country without being dependent upon any residency requirements etc.
I think FIFA will decide that three months spent on loan from a New Zealand club to a team in the same league won't be material.
(They should make an exception anyway because it's one of a handful of leagues internationally that FIFA allow to field teams from more than one country).
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Found this from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAF) - clearly the interpretation has to be in the spirit of what FIFA intended -i.e. to stop countries bringing in foreign players with no demonstrated tie to the country.: http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/Intellectual_Life/10_e._CAS_Irish_case.pdf
"The interpretation of the statutes and rules of a sport association has to be objective
and always start with the wording of the rule. The adjudicating body will have to
consider the meaning of the rule, looking at the language used, and the appropriate
grammar and syntax. The identification of the intentions of the association which
drafted the rule will be further taken into consideration, as well as any relevant
historical background and the regulatory context in which the particular rule is
located. In this respect, according to article 8 of the Swiss Civil Code, the party
alleging an analysis bears the burden of demonstrating the accuracy of it. It is not
sufficient for it simply to make an assertion as to the relevant rules’ derivation."