"Friendly match appearances do not commit a player to one country (though a player is usually able to switch to another national side only if he held the nationality of the second country at the time he represented his first choice national team)"
When he played the friendly for NZ, he did not have eligibility for Japan. I'm not quite sure now clear you need it Wibble but I'm done with it. If you want to believe it, you do so. It makes no difference to me. You also failed to note the Article 17 as well so......
Nowhere in the FIFA statutes is your quoted paragraph written.
Article 17? There also is no article 17. Try Article 7.
7 Acquisition of a new nationality
Any Player who refers to art. 5 par. 1 to assume a new nationality and who
has not played international football in accordance with art. 5 par. 2 shall be
eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfi ls one of the
following conditions:
a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of
the relevant Association;
c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the
relevant Association;
d) He has lived continuously for at least fi ve years after reaching the age of
18 on the territory of the relevant Association.
Article 5:
5 Principle
1. Any person holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on
residence in a certain Country is eligible to play for the representative teams of
the Association of that Country.
2. With the exception of the conditions specifi ed in article 8 below, any Player
who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an Official
Competition of any category or any type of football for one Association
may not play an international match for a representative team of another
Association.
