Mo Farah voices opinion on Jack Wilshere comments

By Liam Power, Reporter | 15 October 2013

Mo Farah breaks his silence over Jack Wilshere's comments on international eligibility, admitting that gets annoyed with rivals switching nationalities as an adult.

Double Olympic champion Mo Farah has broken his silence on Jack Wilshere's comments surrounding national eligibility last week, admitting that he shares common ground with the Arsenal midfielder on the issue.

Wilshere voiced his opinion that players should not be allowed to swap passports to represent a new country as an adult, rejecting the notion that England could attempt to recruit Manchester United midfielder Adnan Januzaj.

Avid Arsenal fan Farah believes that his own personal situation is very different after moving to Great Britain aged eight, but has drawn comparisons with late changes in nationality that regularly occur in athletics.

He is quoted by The Mirror as saying: "I think in my situation, it's completely different because I grew up in Britain and have done everything here.

"When I run for my country, I'm very proud to run for my country. There's people out there who switch nationality.

"There's Kenyan guys who last year or two years ago were running for Kenya and then they switched to Qatar and Bahrain and other countries. Yes I do have a problem with that."

Farah is the latest high-profile sportsman to voice his opinion on a debate that remains prominent, with England cricketer Kevin Pietersen questioning Wilshere's comments on Twitter last week.