Soccer • Football • Voetbal • Fútbol • Calcio • Futebol - 2012-2013 Thread (Including EURO2012) - Page 3

Article in link making me hungry.... Between WWI and WW2, there was a big controversy with Italy instituting the oriundi policy saying that any Argentine citizen could gain immediate dual citizenship by jumping back across the pond. Because of the economic difficulties of the time in SA from errant progressive policy, Italy called back a lot of Argentines to the "fatherland" and, if I may say so, won their early WCs in the 30s directly because of the import of naturalized Argentine players.

And while I do agree w/ the sentiment on Messi and Maradona being "italian" that sort of thinking would effectively eliminate the idea of immigration from a culture - and the reason nations destabilize today. When people coming into a nation are too keen on maintaining themselves as a separate minority, rather than assuming the nation's identity, you get all this factionalism resulting in (at least) cries of racism from within the country, such as here in the EEUU, and at worse, ethnic cleansing like in the Balkans throughout the 90s. While I take pride in Argentina, I consider myself fully "American" because of my (and my family's) choice to live here. No doubt it's the same w/ Messi, Kaká and the like, especially when their families have lived in their respective nations for generations beforehand.

Pep "suddenly" up to jump to another team. Surprise, surprise Couldn't even wait until after the final today.

Also, Blatter apparently keen on changing the game's rules so as to eliminate the penalty shootout - saying it's unfair. waa-waa.