WC: North American Italians

Penguins23

Le Magnifique
Dec 14, 2006
15,641
101
NB Canada
the same reason french-canadians are not playing for team france.

imagine what a team france would have if many french-canadians would play for them....it would be a top team even in olympics/world cup.

Lmao...You're in Europe so you're forgiven but most "French Canadians" have no ties to France within 7-8 generations.
 

FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
6,975
1,349
From what I understand, Nylander was granted an exception because he was not eligible to play for anyone. He is not a US citizen, but instead SWE/CAN. Because he had not played for the requisite amount of time in Sweden or Canada, he was granted an exception.
Might have been like this. But regardless, it's a weird rule to implement on players who have been dual citizens from birth or relatively young age.

I know its point is to encourage countries to grown their own players instead of just hoarding imports, but it would still make much more sense if players who have two passports from younger than the age of 15 (which is the minimum age for IIHF junior level tournaments) could just pick the country they want to play for.
 

SI90

Registered User
Jul 25, 2011
85,758
63,454
StrongIsland
All my grandparents are from Sicily. I don't know if that would qualify me but if I had the choice USA would be my first choice but to honor my grandparents I'd like to represent Italy at least once.
 

mattihp

Registered User
Aug 2, 2004
20,545
3,014
Uppsala, Sweden
IIHF eligibility rules go like this:

A player with only one citizenship is eligible to represent said country's national team.

A player with two (or more) citizenships is eligible to represent any country he has played in club team hockey for two consecutive years - if he has not represented another NT before that.
-This rule is a bit weird, since it also applies to say, the offspring of NHLers who are born in the States and thus have automatically both the US and their parents' citizenships. However, if these players only play hockey in the US junior system, they're unable to represent their parents' home country - unless granted a special clearance by the IIHF. Recently, William Nylander was subject to this to be eligible to represent Sweden.

Finally, dual citizens who have already represented one national team may switch to another if they play club team hockey for four consecutive years in the country they wish to represent.

Wohoo!

So if I have an amazing development from now on (I am 32 by now) I can play for the finnish national team without having to play in Sweden where I reside :D
 

Rob Brown

Way She Goes
Dec 17, 2009
17,093
13,923
the same reason french-canadians are not playing for team france.

imagine what a team france would have if many french-canadians would play for them....it would be a top team even in olympics/world cup.
That's not really the same thing at all.
 

almostawake

Registered User
Jan 19, 2006
4,805
620
Lausanne
There is a Thomas Larkin is on the Italian team.

His father is American, his mother is Italian. He was born in London and family moved to Italy when he was four. So he grew up in Italy and played through the HC Varese youth system. He then went to Phillips Exeter Academy and Colgate. Putting two and two together, his family is very rich and chose to live in Italy for the lifestyle.
 

chupanibre

The GhostBear Cometh
Feb 10, 2014
3,928
123
Bologna, ITA
Team Italy is phasing out imports to try and develop our domestic league.

Also as an Italian it is not fun watching your team full of imports, sure the quality is better, but despite their surnames these guys are not italian. They don't know the language, the culture, what it is to live here and be italian, they are anglophone North Americans. (this isn't to sound nationalistic, it just doesn't make sense to me to pack team italy full of canadians).

imo Larkin is much more italian than Del Zotto, despite what their surnames say.
 

Xokkeu

Registered User
Apr 5, 2012
6,891
193
Frozen
All my grandparents are from Sicily. I don't know if that would qualify me but if I had the choice USA would be my first choice but to honor my grandparents I'd like to represent Italy at least once.

You'd need to go to Italy and play for two years and get the passport which I think you'd be eligible for.
 

Xokkeu

Registered User
Apr 5, 2012
6,891
193
Frozen
Team Italy is phasing out imports to try and develop our domestic league.

Also as an Italian it is not fun watching your team full of imports, sure the quality is better, but despite their surnames these guys are not italian. They don't know the language, the culture, what it is to live here and be italian, they are anglophone North Americans. (this isn't to sound nationalistic, it just doesn't make sense to me to pack team italy full of canadians).

imo Larkin is much more italian than Del Zotto, despite what their surnames say.

I'm not opposed to the odd foreign raised player playing for the team, but if like the entire USA hockey squad was made up of Jason Pominville, Adam Deadmarsh etc I'd probably wouldn't be excited about it
 

chupanibre

The GhostBear Cometh
Feb 10, 2014
3,928
123
Bologna, ITA
I'm not opposed to the odd foreign raised player playing for the team, but if like the entire USA hockey squad was made up of Jason Pominville, Adam Deadmarsh etc I'd probably wouldn't be excited about it

Even then, at least the cultures are very similar, they are neighbouring countries and they speak the same language with similar accents.

It would be more like team USA being filled with Russian imports, with names like Vladmir Jones and Artemi Brown
 

chupanibre

The GhostBear Cometh
Feb 10, 2014
3,928
123
Bologna, ITA
All my grandparents are from Sicily. I don't know if that would qualify me but if I had the choice USA would be my first choice but to honor my grandparents I'd like to represent Italy at least once.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that once you chose which country to represent in the national team you can't join any other national teams after that? So if you repped Canada in wjc, you could not join the french/german/whatever team in the future, even if you did not get chosen for team Canada?
 

jonas2244

Registered User
Jan 4, 2010
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that once you chose which country to represent in the national team you can't join any other national teams after that? So if you repped Canada in wjc, you could not join the french/german/whatever team in the future, even if you did not get chosen for team Canada?

If you have already played for a nation (doesn't matter if wjc or wc) you'd have to play 4 consecutive years in the league of your new country. If you didn't represent any other country before it'd be 2 years.
 

SI90

Registered User
Jul 25, 2011
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StrongIsland
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that once you chose which country to represent in the national team you can't join any other national teams after that? So if you repped Canada in wjc, you could not join the french/german/whatever team in the future, even if you did not get chosen for team Canada?

I don't know the rules. I was just speaking about my personal preference. The rules may be different for other sports. Im pretty sure in the World Baseball Classic you can change your team within 1 tournament.


As to your post above, I totally understand your feelings on imports being the majority of players representing your team. I wouldn't be too thrilled either.

My family certainly acknowledges our Sicilian roots. So even though I wasn't born there, I still feel pride for both the USA and Italy. Especially in sporting events.
 

Birko19

Registered User
Aug 13, 2002
11,189
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Hamilton, Ont
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Team Italy is phasing out imports to try and develop our domestic league.

Also as an Italian it is not fun watching your team full of imports, sure the quality is better, but despite their surnames these guys are not italian. They don't know the language, the culture, what it is to live here and be italian, they are anglophone North Americans. (this isn't to sound nationalistic, it just doesn't make sense to me to pack team italy full of canadians).

imo Larkin is much more italian than Del Zotto, despite what their surnames say.

The Italians in Canada are still somewhat Italian, I can at least say this about the Italians I went to school with (Born in late 70s/Early 80's), most of them understood Italian or whatever Italian language that was spoken at home (Sicilian, Neapolitan, etc), a smaller number actually spoke their native language. In their homes their culture was very Italian since most of their parents were actually from Italy, only a small number of them had parents born in Canada. All of them had family in Italy that they kept actual contact with and made many visits

The biggest immigrant wave of Italians came to Canada between the 50's and 70's, so the culture is still somewhat fresh, not to mention that in Canada, they are pushed to hold on to their traditions because cultural diversity is very encouraged. Things are a little different in the US because the Italians there arrived there much earlier, and they have a complete different system over there.
 

Xokkeu

Registered User
Apr 5, 2012
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Frozen
Even then, at least the cultures are very similar, they are neighbouring countries and they speak the same language with similar accents.

It would be more like team USA being filled with Russian imports, with names like Vladmir Jones and Artemi Brown

Meh I don't mind too much that. More that the team wouldn't represent American hockey at all. It was exciting to me to watch John Terry in the u20s because he came up playing on the same rink I play my beer league games at. Same with Joe Pavekski who used to have pick up games at a rink I played at. Having 20+ Canadians or whatever on the team would just be like an NHL team.
 

Xokkeu

Registered User
Apr 5, 2012
6,891
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Frozen
I don't know the rules. I was just speaking about my personal preference. The rules may be different for other sports. Im pretty sure in the World Baseball Classic you can change your team within 1 tournament.


As to your post above, I totally understand your feelings on imports being the majority of players representing your team. I wouldn't be too thrilled either.

My family certainly acknowledges our Sicilian roots. So even though I wasn't born there, I still feel pride for both the USA and Italy. Especially in sporting events.

Every sports ruling body makes different rules. FIFA says one cap and you're done. But you just need to be a citizenship. IIHF is more strict. IBAF probably would have just been ignored by MLB if they did anything different anyway.
 

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