Article 18 Change of Association
1 If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new
nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several representative
teams due to nationality, he may, up to his 21st birthday, and only
once, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to
play international matches to the Association of another country of
which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions:
(a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official
competition at �A� international level for his current Association,
and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an
international match in an official competition for his current
Association, he already had the nationality of the representative
team for which he wishes to play.
(b) He is not permitted to play for his new Association in any
competition in which he has already played for his previous
Association.
I really don't understand the wording here. A player can play for a different association if they've never played for another association previously, yet it says at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an intl match in an official competition he had to have been naturalized for the country he later wants to play for... surely that right there means they can't play for another association because 'at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an
international match in an official competition' means he has played for another association and thus can't change. Have FIFA been lazy in their wording or am I misunderstanding. I was going to say I know what they're trying to say but I really don't.