It always confuses me when I see the English Football Team whilst some players aren't even English Full list of all Footballers for the English team over time who aren't from England Since any player can play for any team it makes supporting teams based on patriotism pointless since you would be supporting those not from your country. I can see the arguments that it allows for people from Scotland, for example, to support the Portuguese team if they have a Scottish player. Perhaps clubs benefit from profit when they buy and sell players too I don't understand football so I may not be correct on this. At the least I believe that players should've lived in their country's team for a year prior to joining that team. TL DR Only English born or closely related should be able to play in the English team and that should be the same for all teams
That players from national teams English, Spanish etc should be from, or have heritage from that respective nation