LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- If FIFA president Sepp Blatter is to be believed , it 's the biggest issue that faces football . No , not diving , or Premiership hegemony or even the tackle from behind but rather the naturalization of players from other countries , especially Brazil , becoming common currency in the international game . Brazilian-born Mehmet Aurelio was the first naturalized footballer to play for the Turkish national team . `` If we do n't take care about the invaders from Brazil , '' Blatter controversially said at the draw for the 2010 World Cup . `` Then at the next World Cups ... we will have 16 [ teams ] full of Brazilian players . It 's a danger , a real , real danger . '' Players born outside of their country of citizenship have always played for their newly adopted countries . Alfredo Di Stefano started life with an Argentine passport before turning out for Colombia and Spain . Ferenc Puskas also represented Spain after making his name for Hungary . Do you think you players should be able to adopt a new country and play for them ? But two things have changed . The first is the globalized nature of the sport , which has allowed Brazil to sell arguably its greatest export -- talented footballers -- to every corner of the world . The second is the emerging power and wealth of smaller states willing to use their financial muscle to attract better players to their national team . FIFA has been extremely critical of countries that have handed passports -- some after playing in their new country for less than two years -- to talented footballers . The problem FIFA has found is separating the naturalization of a player who has genuinely put down roots in their new country -- as with Eduardo who moved to Croatia when he was 15 -- and those whose allegiances are bought and sold in a rudimentary international transfer system . One country that has stretched the rules to breaking point is Qatar , who has used its vast gas wealth to attract and naturalize a host of players from Uruguay and Brazil . The Qatari FA even offered to pay Brazilian striker Ailton , then the top scorer in the German Bundesliga , $ 1million to come and play for Qatar in 2004 , even though he had never set foot in the country . The move led to FIFA introducing emergency legislation banning naturalizations from taking place if there was no connection between the player and their prospective country . FIFA has tried to tighten up the rules . Last May FIFA agreed a rule change which stated that a player must live in their new country for five years before they can play for the national team . Have the rules on naturalization of footballers devalued international football ? But for a country the size of Qatar , which has a population of fewer than one million , there are few other options . `` The only way Qatar or Bahrain are ever going to be competitive is to import players and naturalize them , '' explains Jesse Fink , an Australian writer on Asian football and author of `` 15 Days in June : How Australia Became a Football Nation . '' Yet ultimately Qatar 's experiment in footballing naturalization looks to have paid off . They currently sit third in their Asian World Cup qualifying group and are on course for a play-off spot for South Africa 2010 thanks , in no small part , to the goals of their Uruguayan-born striker Sebastian Soria . If they qualify they will be the smallest country to ever make it to the finals . Even more established footballing nations -- like Spain with Marcos Senna and Turkey with Mehmet Aurelio -- have looked at naturalization to fill problem positions in their team . While English-born John Wilkinson swapped the vagaries of lower league football in the UK for Singapore after being released by non-league Exeter City . Five years later he married his Singaporean girlfriend after some gentle persuasion from the national team coach and now anchors the team 's midfield . `` I did n't even know where Singapore was ! '' he told The UK 's Guardian newspaper last year . Arsene Wenger suggested that his Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia , who qualifies for a British passport after living in the UK for five years , is the answer to England 's goalkeeping problems . So will Brazilian imports really takeover the international game ? Many are skeptical . `` Blatter is fearful that World Cups will be overrun with naturalized Brazilians and has proposed strict rules for naturalizing players , but these are just scare tactics , '' concludes Fink . `` At the end of the day people want to see the majority of the players in their national team 'represent ' them . '' What do you think ? Let us know your views in the Sound-off box below .
A look at a team of naturalized players plying their trade in world football . The team is largely made of Brazilians want a taste of international football , . FIFA is trying to stamp out the phenomenon . What do you think ? Let us know via the Sound Off box below .