FIFA Statutes:
Art. 5
1. Any person holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on
residence in a certain Country is eligible to play for the representative teams of
the Association of that Country.
Since he has to relinquish NZ citizenship my understanding of the rule is that he can't play for NZ, as he no longer has NZ nationality?
Can we put and end this point of order regarding this guy?
HE IS ELIGIBLE TO PLAY FOR NZ FOR LIFE!!! I'm not sure how people can spell this out any other way. Having to renounce his NZ citizenship DOES NOT AFFECT FIFA LAW AROUND HIS ELIGIBILITY FOR NZF
(and yes the caps is required because the point does not seem to be penetrating some people)
According to what you have written above, he would not be eligible for any nation as he did not hold Japanese citizenship at the time of first representing NZ in a friendly. This is completely not the case and let me help you out with the breakdown.
"Any person holding a permanent nationality" - In this case he hold a permanent NZ nationality
"that is not dependent on residence in a certain Country" - his nationality is not dependent on him staying in NZ
"is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of that Country" - can play for NZ.
Can we be done with this argument??