The issue of naturalising ath­letes was on top of the agenda at the 81st GCC Olympic Commit­tee meeting, which kicked off in Dubai yesterday.

The meeting, which brought to­gether heads of the National Ol­ympic Committees (NOC) of Gulf states, discussed a number of issues including the eligibility of natural­ised athletes participating in up­coming GCC Games.

The committee agreed that they should follow the rules of the Inter­national Olympic Committee (IOC) by only allowing naturalised ath­letes who have held a passport and been a resident of the adopted GCC country for at least three years.

While in the case of football, they will follow FIFA’s eligibility rules which state that a player must have the passport and be a resident of his adopted country for at least five years.

The decision hopes to provide more opportunities for local ath­letes to compete in GCC competi­tions, according to the committee.

It also comes on the heels of the Asian Games, where the issue of naturalised athletes was raised more than once.

The UAE judo team, represented by three Moldovan-born judokas, were sent home for failing to meet the three-year residency rule.

A host of African-born track and field athletes scooped several med­als for Gulf states at the recently-concluded Asian Games, sparking further debate over naturalisation.

“Naturalisation is a univer­sal thing and isn’t just specific to one country or another,” insisted Abdulrahman Askar, the secretary general of the Bahrain NOC. “What we have done now is that we are making sure we are following the IOC code.”