What dictates what country a footballer plays for?

If a footballer's parents are Spanish, but the footballer has been bought up and lives in England, what team is the footballer allowed to play for on international level?

What dictates what country a footballer plays for?oper

To be able to play for any national team you must fit the following criteria:

1) Be born in that nation or

2) Your parents were born in that nation or

3) Your grand-parents were born in that nation. or

4) You must live in that country for at least two consecutive years followed by gaining citizenship for that country.

* Depending on the country you may have to live in the country longer to gain citizenship.

* Once a player plays an OFFICIAL match with a country they can no longer play with another country. They are allowed to play friendlies with any country for which they fit the criteria up until they play an official match. This applies only for the Senior team. A Player can participate official matches with one country in the youth national teams and choose to play with another in the senior team. So if a player participates in a youth team and in a friendly for a senior squad he must make a decision by the age of 21

Hope this answers your question

What dictates what country a footballer plays for?hollywood theater opera theater

I believe then he can play for either Spain or England because his parents are from Spain and he is (I assume) a British citizen. I know there are players who play for their parent's native country.

Some have actually done that in the past, switching from one national team to another. I think he can if the country that he intends to switch for allows it.

No, it is right. It has been done in the past:

"Several famous footballers played for more than one national team in the old days. Italy鈥檚 World Cup-winning sides of the 1930鈥檚 featured the so-called oriundi, South American players who had played for the national team of their native land but whose Italian ancestry also made them eligible to play for the azzurri. Later, in the 1940's and 1950鈥檚, Alfredo Di Stefano, indisputably one of the two or three greatest players of the century, played for three national sides鈥攈is native Argentina, Colombia after his move to the renegade league in that country and Spain after he joined Real Madrid, although the Colombia matches were deemed unofficial because the Colombian association was on the outs with FIFA. Di Stefano鈥檚 Real Madrid teammate, Ferenc Puskas, starred for his native Hungary in the 1940's and 1950's and then went on to play for Spain in the early 1960's after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1957 led to his exile from his homeland. And Ladislao Kubala, a forward of wonderful skills voted the greatest player in FC Barcelona's history in 1999, appeared for three national sides from the late 1940's to the early 1960's--Czechoslovakia, his native Hungary and Spain"

This is no longer the case, but it has been done in the past.

See the link for full info.
No---that's not right. Once a player plays even one game for a national team, he can not play for another country.