FIFA helps Africa take a major step forward

LONDON (Reuters) -- As the Highbury song goes: "Vieira oh-oh-oh-oh ... he comes from Senegal, he plays for Arsenal."

The irony of course is that Patrick Vieira, the Arsenal skipper, might come from Senegal but he does not play for the country where he was born 26 years ago.

A World Cup winner with France in 1998, he played against his homeland in the 2002 World Cup when Senegal stunned the world champions 1-0 in the opening match of the tournament.

Vieira is one of hundreds of sons of Africa to be lost to African soccer since the continent's finest players started to pursue their careers in Europe in the 1960s.

Eusebio, the all-time great of Portuguese soccer and the leading scorer in the 1966 World Cup finals, began the trend along with Mario Coluna.

Both were born in Mozambique and both won the European Cup with Benfica in 1961 and 1962 before helping Portugal to third place in 1966.

Of today's top players Marcel Desailly (Ghana) and Claude Makelele (Congo) -- among dozens of others -- can be added to Vieira's name.

Of course no-one coerced these three to play for France. They were delighted to do so and have never hinted for a moment that they regretted their decisions.

NEVER PROGRESSED

But for many other players, who represented one nation when youngsters but never progressed to the senior team, their decision meant they could not pursue an international career elsewhere.

That is why FIFA's new rule, which allows players to change their national allegiance after playing in junior matches for one country, is to be welcomed.

The rule - covering players with dual citizenship or nationality - came into effect on January 1.

This week three former French under-21 internationals Frederic Kanoute, Mohamed Sissoko and Lamine Sakho were declared eligible to play in the African Nations Cup starting later this month in Tunisia.

Kanoute and Sissoko will represent Mali, and Sakho will represent Senegal, and the decision represents another step on the way towards a greater respect for African soccer.

However, Kanoute's club Tottenham Hotspur, who are in a relegation scrap, displayed old-fashioned thinking as they tried to pressure Kanoute to stay in England and help them climb the table rather than represent the country of his father's birth.

In their defence, Tottenham said that when they signed Kanoute from West Ham last August, they had no idea he was planning to switch his international allegiance to Mali after playing for France at junior level.

Spurs said the rules to change eligibility were not even in place at the time.

But while that may be true, Spurs were loath to be without their leading scorer for up to five weeks.

It's clearly time for European clubs, who have been reluctant to release players for the Nations Cup, to wake up to the ambitions of Africa's young talent.

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