In line with its commitment to promote greater transparency in its regulatory operations, FIFA has published its first Commentary on the Rules Governing Eligibility to Play for Representative Teams.

The primary objective of the commentary is to explain the rules concerning players’ eligibility to play for a national team in international football. Its publication was prompted by the recent adoption by the FIFA Congress of the first wholesale modernisation of the rules governing players’ eligibility since 2008, as well as the increase of requests submitted to the FIFA Players’ Status Committee and the need to provide legal certainty to football stakeholders.

The commentary is accompanied by the publication of the first-ever Guide to Submitting a Request for Eligibility or Change of Association, presenting a complete overview of the legal procedure and documents required for any eligibility or change of association request submitted to the FIFA Players’ Status Committee.

The commentary and the guide are thus not only highly useful for member associations and players, but also provide the general public with a clearer understanding of this important and complex topic. The commentary and guide, providing some further background, can be downloaded here in all four official FIFA languages (English, French, German and Spanish) on legal.fifa.com.