Trinidad and Tobago are hoping to be able to take Arsenal defender Justin Hoyte to the World Cup this summer. Soca Warriors coach Leo Beenhakker is hoping to discuss the Arsenal full-back’s situation with FIFA, and feels that he may be able to take Hoyte to the World Cup in Germany, as part of the Warriors squad, along with others such as West Ham's Bobby Zamora and J.Lloyd Samuel of Aston Villa.

Since qualifying for their first ever finals, Trinidad and Tobago head coach Leo Beenhakker has responded to the challenge of facing England, Sweden and Paraguay in Group B by seeking out, and actively recruiting new members for the T&T World Cup squad, and Beenhakker is set to formally approach FIFA to see if he can secure clearance to pick Hoyte, despite the fact he has represented England at Under-21 level.

T&T are looking at the possibility of exploiting the FIFA rule (introduced in 2002), which allows players to switch their national allegiance even if they've already played at a junior level for a different country.

Previously, players had been allowed to play at schoolboy level for one country and then at international level for another, because schoolboy level is all about where you go to school rather than about what your nationality is (hence famous examples such as Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs who played schoolboy football for England, but plays for Wales).

Once a player has played at any level from a junior (Under17, U19, U21) level upwards, your nationality is fixed as far as FIFA are concerned. The new ruling was introduced basically to help smaller countries and has been exploited a lot by African nations in the last few years.

Hoyte, who is currently on loan at Sunderland, has represented England at U21 level, and any plans to switch his footballing nationality may be undone by an addition to the FIFA rule, which states that the change has to be made before the player reaches the age of 21, but the Arsenal defender turned 21 back in November.

Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker is going to give it a try though, and is going to approach FIFA with a formal request to be allowed to pick Hoyte for his squad, along with others such as West Ham's Bobby Zamora and J.Lloyd Samuel of Aston Villa.

There have been no comments yet from Hoyte, and it is still unclear that Hoyte would even accept the offer to plat for T&T.

If FIFA do allow the switch, and Hoyte does decide to accept T&T's offer, he could find himself playing against his former teammate Freddie Ljungberg in his first competitive match at full international level, and facing his home nation England in his second match.

Hoyte is on loan at Sunderland this season, where he's been playing well, and Hoyte's potential is such that it wouldn't be surprising if he felt that he has enough potential to be able to get into the full England Senior squad to make the option of playing for T&T not to be all that attractive.

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