Stricter eligibility rules to stop home nations athletes jumping ship
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Your support makes all the difference.The Commonwealth Games Federation yesterday announced a strict new eligibility regime to prevent athletes like the world squash No 1 Paul Nicol from defecting from one British home nation to another.
The new regime, agreed at the CGF's pre-Games general assembly in Manchester, removes parentage as a right to represent a country. Competitors must either have been born in the country they represent or have lived in it for a minimum of two out of three years before the Games.
The rules will come into play for next year's second Commonwealth Youth Games which, the CGF also announced, will be staged in the Australian state of Victoria. The regime will also prevent moves like Nicol's – who will appear in his first tournament for England at the Games having controversially left Scotland – by stipulating that the competitors may only defect with the approval of the CGF and the two nations involved.
The CGF chief executive, Mike Hooper, said that the new rules, which follow wrangling over the nationality of at least 30 Manchester competitors, would bring the home nations in line with the rest of the CGF.
Until now, eligibility has been dependent on six months' residency in the year before a Games for the home nations competitors and three out of the previous five years for all other nations.
The CGF assembly received presentations from Canada, Singapore and New Delhi for the 2010 Games. New Delhi brought the latest delegation to Manchester, including its sports minister, and success in its bid would increase the argument for cricket to be added to the list of Games events. Canada will select one of five cities for its 2010 bid.
Despite the continued absence of African nations for the 2010 list, the CGF chairman, Mike Fennell, said that the federation wanted to involve Africa – which fields 19 of the 72 squads at Manchester. Nigeria and Kenya had both expressed interest in the past few years and South Africa may soon be a contender, he added.
* The manager of Scotland's weightlifting team, Jim Ferguson, and John McNiven, their coach, have withdrawn from the Commonwealth Games after officials launched an urgent investigation into drug allegations. The Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland thanked the two men for agreeing to step down because of publicity over the issue.
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