Article 18 of the FIFA statutes reads as follows:
If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new
nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several representative
teams due to nationality, he may, up to his 21st birthday, and only
once, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to
play international matches to the Association of another country of
which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions:
(a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official
competition at “A” international level for his current Association,
and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an
international match in an official competition for his current
Association, he already had the nationality of the representative
team for which he wishes to play.
While the player is not named in the FIFA report, sources in Syria say the player is forward George Mourad who played in both games for Syria in Round 2. Mourad apparently played in 2 games for Sweden in 2005, which would make him ineligible to play for Syria. According to Syrian officials, Mourad took part in games that were part of Olympic qualifying and not 'A' level games. However a Swedish fan website clearly shows that Mourad's first international game was against South Korea, a game in which he was 22 years old, and which FIFA's archives show was an international friendly (an 'A' level match) and not an Olympic qualifier. As a result, Mourad is indeed ineligible to play for Syria and the correct call was made by FIFA.
As a result, both of Syria's Round 2 games have been awarded to Tajikistan as 3-0 victories. Because the draw has already taken place, Tajikistan will simply take Syria's spot in Group 3 along with Japan, North Korea and Uzbekistan. First game will be at home against Uzbekistan on September 2nd, followed by a road game against North Korea September 6th.
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