Should the IIHF move to FIFA style eligibility rules?

[Xokkeu]

Not practical because of certain country's citizenship revocation laws (see Denmark, Japan, Norway).

He doesn't believe that you should have to be a citizen to play for a national team.

 

[Zine]

He doesn't believe that you should have to be a citizen to play for a national team.

I can agree with that in theory (it rewards the developing hockey program), but not in practice.
Where a player 'learns the game' can get rather vague (see Galchenyuk); and ages are arbitrary.

At least citizenship concretely and legally binds a player to a country.

 

[Ryker]

At least citizenship concretely and legally binds a player to a country.

Plus, since it's about countries competing amongst themselves, who is the best judge of who a country's representative can or should be but the said country itself? The latter is done via citizenship, and to me it only makes sense that that should then be enough.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

He doesn't believe that you should have to be a citizen to play for a national team.

I had absolutely no problem with Ulf Samuelsson playing for Sweden in Nagano, regardless of his citizenship status. All I'm saying is that where a person learned to play hockey means much more to me in this situation than a document proclaiming whether or not they are considered a citizen. I'm sure I'm not alone in this either. I'm pretty sure if you look back at the World Cups you will see guys who were allowed to play for certain countries even though they were no longer citizens.