Wilshere plays straight bat after Pietersen joins nationality row

JACK Wilshere's comment that only English-born players should represent the national team sparked a row on Twitter with Kevin Pietersen.

Kevin Pietersen

JACK Wilshere's comment that only English-born players should represent the national team sparked a row on Twitter yesterday with Kevin Pietersen, the South African-born England batsman.

The Arsenal midfielder insisted that living in England for a period of time "does not make you English" after the FA's attempts to persuade Adnan Januzaj to play for the country, even though the Manchester United 19-year-old was born in Brussels to Kosovan-Albanian parents and is eligible for Belgium, Albania, Turkey, Serbia or Kosovo.

Pietersen criticised Wilshere and listed other sportsmen who were born abroad but had represented England. "Interested to know how you define foreigner?" Pietersen wrote. "Would that include me, Strauss, Trott, Prior, Justin Rose, Froome, Mo Farah?"

Pietersen, who left South Africa over his dissatisfaction with the country's quota system, has played 99 Tests for England. He became eligible through his mother and, having served a four-year qualification period, went on to become an Ashes hero. He even has the Three Lions emblem tattooed on his left arm.

Wilshere responded by saying that he was talking about football. "With all due respect Mr Pietersen the question was about football," he tweeted. "Cricket, cycling, athletics is not my field."

The Twitter exchange did not end there as Pietersen retorted: "Same difference. It's about representing your country. IN ANY SPORT."

Wilshere also claimed that his stance was unrelated to Januzaj, who could eventually be eligible for England through residency. FIFA statutes say that a player is eligible to play for a country if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 in the territory of the relevant association", meaning that Januzaj would have to wait until 2018, when he is 23, to be able to represent England.

"I wasn't referring to Januzaj," Wilshere said. "The question was: 'should foreign players be allowed to play for England?' and I don't think they should.

"He is a great player. I wish he was English. I'm sure most of you agree with me, even if some journalists are trying to make me look bad again."

Lord Triesman, the former FA chairman, said that Wilshere was right to raise the debate. "He makes a very good point in one sense as at the moment if you look at the clubs in the Premier or other divisions, you could have an

England side made up from players from all over the world," Triesman said at the launch of a Jewish football exhibition in London. "What does that say about identity?"

Triesman said that he faced pressure from England players about who should be eligible to play for the country, amid their concerns that naturalising players could affect their opportunity for caps.

He added that the Scottish FA had also raised the issue. "It would not be right to name the players, but it was something that was raised by young players who were either actually or potentially England players quite frequently," Triesman said.

"There was particular pressure from the players and they and the Scottish FA raised the issues most consistently. I heard a lot of young players say it as largely their opportunities as English-born players were declining all the time.

"That is exactly what has happened: fewer of them on the pitch for a shorter period of time harder to break through. They did not want to see their chances diminished further. I can understand that and I have a lot of sympathy for it."

Triesman said that players also needed to recognise changes in the world and that there needed to be a clear set of qualification rules.

"People move around much more, it is a global environment, people come here and settle here, and the only sensible way to deal with it is to say: 'let's have a proper qualification period and a clear set of rules,' " he said.

The Times