Бабалар ережесі: Спортшылардың ата-анасының туған жері үшін ойнау мүмкіндігі

Rule allowing sports players to play for country of their ancestors

The grandfather rule, in sports which usually only permit participants to play for the team of their country of birth, is an exception which gives participants the option to play for the country of any of their ancestors up to the grandparents. Despite the common name for the rule, grandparents of either sex can be invoked equally and it is sometimes referred to as the grandparent rule or the granny rule.

In rugby league, the RLIF reiterated in 2008 that a player may represent a country if it is their country, or the country of their parents or any of their grandparents' birth.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), which governs both baseball and softball internationally, requires nationality as a precondition for national team selection, but does not mention the grandparent rule in its bylaws. The method by which a player obtains legal nationality is irrelevant to national team eligibility, at least from the WBSC's perspective. The relevant bylaw uses the language "country or territory", thereby encompassing both fully sovereign states and dependent territories.

FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, has eligibility rules largely similar to those of the WBSC. Nationality is a precondition for national team selection, and the grandparent rule is generally not employed. The method by which a player obtains citizenship is usually irrelevant to national team eligibility. The only use of the grandparent rule is to determine eligibility to represent the national team of a country's dependent territory, with two notable examples being those of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, both US insular areas with their own national federations, and whose native born residents are US citizens by birth. FIBA, however, has a unique restriction on participation of naturalised players in its official competitions that has no parallel in association football, either rugby code, or baseball and softball. In FIBA competitions, a national team can have no more than one player on its roster who acquired that country's nationality by any means after reaching age 16. This restriction also applies to individuals who had the right to a second nationality at birth, but did not exercise that right until age 16 or later. The latter is relevant to natives of Northern Ireland, who have both British citizenship and the right to Irish citizenship by birth.

The International Cricket Council, which governs international play in cricket, has eligibility rules broadly similar to rugby union. A player may qualify for a national team by birth, nationality, or a minimum of three years of residency in the territory governed by a specific federation. The grandparent rule is not used.

A controversial rule, sports fans often debate whether this rule weakens smaller countries by creating the temptation for the best players to abandon their native country and declare elsewhere in the hopes of greater glory, or if on the contrary it helps smaller countries by giving them access to a broader range of players who wouldn't typically be considered to be picked for their country of birth.