Sports Letters:Welsh standards

Sir: Many Welsh football supporters will, like Ciaran Hancock of Dublin (Letters, 8 December), deplore the selection of Vinnie Jones for Wales, but as he does claim remote Welsh ancestry the Welsh FA can't be criticised for exploiting loopholes already used by other countries.

The real double standard comes when the FAW, while pleading that Wales' status as an independent footballing nation is under threat, cheerfully cashes in on the concept of one UK nationality by picking British passport holders with no Welsh ancestry bornoverseas, who are allowed to declare an allegiance to any of the "home countries".

One such player, Alan Neilson, a member of the Welsh team humiliated in Georgia, was reported by a Welsh newspaper as never having set foot in Wales before being picked for the national side. Funny old game! Yours faithfully P Tanner Reading