Players eligible for Ireland

It was still thought that he was ok through the grandparents but the Luxembourg FA picked up on wording in the regulations that said that he had to be an Irish citizen when he played competitively for Luxembourg. If his mother had been born in Ireland he would have automatically been an Irish citizen, but she wasn't and he hadn't gone through the foreign birth register process via his grandparents at that stage, so he wasn't actually an Irish citizen when he played competitively for Luxembourg. This made him ineligible for us once he took the competitive caps for Luxembourg.

The new rules introduced last autumn brought in a number of changes and clarifications. The main one about three caps and age 21 etc is posted a few posts up. But that's not the one that relates to Johansson. There was another change that clarified that if a player has played underage competitively for one country and wants to change to another, he no longer needs to have been a citizen of the new country at the time he played for the old country. This is the change that makes him eligible for us again.

There is one other caveat though - you can only make one switch. It had been reported that Johansson had decided to switch to a third country, Sweden. If that paperwork had gone through he would be ineligible for us as he had used his switch and couldn't switch again. However, according to the man himself this week, he hasn't actually switched to Sweden. If that is correct he can still play for us.

Hopefully he has since gone and gotten his Irish passport, as the Foreign birth register process is lengthy, especially at the moment with Covid and Brexit. If he has done, things would hopefully be relatively straightforward if he wants to switch to us and hopefully the FAI would help with the paperwork to FIFA. If he hasn't done the foreign birth register process yet he won't be playing under 21 for us I think, because it will take too long to get all the paperwork sorted.

Having said all that, while he does appear to be eligible under the new rules, he also needs to actually want to declare for us. It sounded from the interview he gave that he was still open to all three countries at this point. He probably needs to make that decision first of all.

Having said all that, while he does appear to be eligible under the new rules, he also needs to actually want to declare for us. It sounded from the interview he gave that he was still open to all three countries at this point. He probably needs to make that decision first of all.

This is the relevant document. Johansson now qualifies under Article 9, Section 2, Subsection b.

With regard to the additional requirements set out in part iv of subsection b, he qualifies under Article 7, Section 1, Subsection c (grandparent born in Ireland).

I realise that's a very technical answer written in legalese, but that's the answer.

I'm not suggesting he'd get into our U21 squad at this stage but he's just turned 20 so will have (if I am correct) one more U21s campaign in him but after that, it's senior caps or no caps so I'd not be hanging around.