Decision with 18: Völler wants new sporting eligibility rules

Footballers should decide by the time they turn 18 for which senior national team they want to play, German team sporting director Rudi Völler has said.

Völler told Saturday's papers of the Funke publishing house he is not happy with the current rule under which players can change their sporting eligibility at a later stage.

"This nation-hopping is very bad and also undermines the national teams," he said. "It can not be that players can permanently decide for whom they want to play. That is not good."

In the past players were committed to one team once they played one senior match. Now they can still switch if they have no more than three caps outside of big tournaments before turning 21 and at least three years have passed since the last game.

Völler named this too complicated and suggested: "Why not an easier regulation to decide at the age of 18 at the latest for which country I want to play. That would be the best solution. That is my firm belief."

Several players at the upcoming World Cup could have also played for the German team and have represented the country at junior level, such as Turkey's Can Uzun, Ibrahim Maza of Algeria and Tunisia's Rani Khedira, whose brother Sami won the 2014 World Cup with Germany.

But the German team also has Jamal Musiala, who first played in England's junior team, and Jonathan Tah said he turned down an approach by Ivory Coast many years ago. Malick Thiaw could have also played for his parents' countries of Finland or Senegal instead of Germany.

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has said he would never try to persuade anyone and that the players must make the decision for themselves.

“It must be an honour to play for Germany,” Nagelsmann said.