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Article: Flags of convenience and united nations
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- February 26, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IF YOUR country doesn't need you, find one that does. This is
the slogan of the age for the ambitious and nationally mobile
sportsman. Patriotism may well be, as Johnson alleged, the last
refuge of the scoundrel, but it is the first casualty of the shrewd
professional who wants to add an extra dimension to his earning
capacity.
This is not to say that every player who takes advantage of the
liberalisation of international qualification rules that has swept
through sport over the years is motivated by profit. Being adopted
by a country with which you may have only a vague genetic
connection can often prove to be a natural union of souls that were
always meant to be together.
Yet the path ...