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The Nairobian

World Cup qualification: Tunisia speed up player naturalisation

Football

By -AP | Nov 17, 2013

TUNIS

Tunisian striker Yassine Chikhaoui vies with Cameroon’s midfielder Alex Song.

Two footballers have been rushed through Tunisian naturalisation processes in a bid to boost the country’s World Cup qualification hopes, the country’s football federation said.

Swiss-based Stephane Nater and Belgium-based Fabien Camus, both of whom were born in France and hold French nationality, are expected to line up against Cameroon in Yaounde in the second leg of the World Cup play-off clash that saw the first leg end in a 0-0 draw in Tunis.

“After a lengthy suspense and at the end of Thursday, November 14, the two Tunisian players, Stephane Houcine Nater and Fabien Camus, have finally obtained Tunisian nationality,” the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) said in a statement.

“Prime Minister Ali Larayedh has signed documents allowing Nater and Camus to benefit from Tunisian nationality and despite the late hour, the FTF began the operation to prepare identity documents and passports for the two players.”

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Contacted by AFP, FIFA would not confirm whether or not the two players would actually be eligible to play today.

“From a general perspective, it is up to the federation that wants to pick a player for one of its representative teams to ensure the player in question is eligible,” said a FIFA spokesperson.

Nater, who began his career in Liechtenstein, currently plays for St Gallen in Switzerland, where he also holds nationality.

Camus, who began his career at French giants Marseille, plays for Genk.

He has a Tunisian mother and has actually already played for Tunisia, in a friendly against the Netherlands in 2009.

Meanwhile, Samuel Eto’o has urged everyone in the Cameroon set-up to unite in order to help the team qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Cameroon are locked 0-0 with Tunisia and Eto’o has promised to set aside his own long-running issues with the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) to focus on the game.

“Let’s bury our differences to qualify the team for the World Cup”, Eto’o said.

— Agencies