CD Guadalajara's policy of only having players who represent Mexico has been further softened in the last week, with the high probability that former United States youth international Eric Avila will be joining from sister club Chivas USA.
Winger Avila, 25, played for the United States from aged 15 until the U-23 level and was part of the US U-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, FL. He has been on trial in Guadalajara since June 18 and coach Benjamin Galindo has said there is a 99 percent chance he will make the move permanent.
The real sticking point is that the San Diego native has put his hand to his heart to sing the Star Spangled Banner and given his all in a US shirt. Should that automatically discount him from Chivas? We'll get to that.
Chivas' policy allows foreign-born players that can claim Mexican citizenship to wear the red-and-white shirt. Avila qualifies, with his parents having been born in Jalisco, but his history with the US national team presents a grey area for the club and its fans.
A November 7 press release intended to clear up the issue once and for all, following rumors that US international Herculez Gomez was of interest to the club.
It stated: "In Guadalajara, only and exclusively Mexican players and those who choose to play for the Mexican national team will be admitted."
Avila has chosen to play for the United States in the past off his own accord and -- in one interpretation of the rule -- that could discount him from Chivas.
But the very fact Chivas are considering the signing signals the club seems to be drawing the line at "current foreign internationals," allowing players to resign from a foreign national team and be clear to play for Chivas, as is likely the case with Avila.
In other words, if he was called into the next United States national team squad, Avila would have to refuse or leave Chivas, as coach Galindo explained.
"He's already resigned (from the US national team)," said Galindo last Friday. "He's not going to be called up to the national team; what he really wants is to play for Guadalajara."
The repercussion is that there seems to have been not a shift but rather a redefinition in the club's policy. It is a further weakening of a policy that has gone from booting out Maryland-born Gerardo Mascareno in 1998 simply because he was born in the United States, to accepting US nationals like Jesus Padilla and Miguel Ponce in recent years, to allowing players that have worn the US shirt at the youth level like Avila.
The issue will be further put under the spotlight when current US U-20 international Juan Pablo Ocegueda returns to the club -- where he is on loan from Tigres -- after the World Cup in Turkey and starts playing in official matches, if there is no U-turn beforehand.
The irony is that Chivas' policy is even stricter than that of the Mexican national team, which accepts naturalized citizens with no Mexican heritage that qualify through residence.
The simple, long-term solution could be to stick to the Mexican constitution's definition of what a Mexican is and ditch the national team add-ons.
The constitution defines being "Mexican" as the following:
-Those born in Mexican territory.
-Those born abroad and who have at least one parent who was born in Mexico or is a naturalized Mexican.
Changing the policy would likely mean initial resistance from supporters, but the current policy already allows Chivas to field two players next season who have previously played for the United States.
Adding to that, the issue is only likely to get murkier the deeper the links are between Chivas USA and Chivas, and Guadalajara could eventually lose out on players. The US U-20 team currently has plenty of quality US-born Mexico nationals -- Benji Joya, Jose Villarreal, Dani Cuevas -- and more are likely to come through. In many ways the Chivas/Chivas USA link is a perfect setup for the development of such players, but the national team situation is a sticking point for top players coming out of California and other states.
As goalkeeper Luis Michel neatly surmised: "At the end, what we are going to focus on is what he (Avila) does on the pitch. That is what concerns us."
While the "all-Mexico" policy is part of the very essence of Chivas and shouldn't be removed, there needs to be some open debate on the national team side of it.