Thirty-three footballers have so far taken advantage of FIFA's rule change that allows players to switch their national allegiance, starting a new career after having previously represented another country at junior level.

Six more players have applied to change and are still awaiting ratification by FIFA.

Anyone else wanting to make the switch has just a month left to start the process before the rule is restricted to players aged under 21. FIFA waived the age restriction for the first year of the new rule, until December 31 2004.

Since January 1, players with dual citizenship or nationality who have not played international soccer above under-23 level have been eligible to apply to FIFA to change the country they represent.

Only one has had his application turned down, the Russian-born Murad Mogomedov who sought to take up an offer to play for Israel.

Twenty countries, including Ireland, Wales, Australia, Venezuela and a host of African nations, have benefited from the rule.

England, Slovenia, Uganda and South Africa are among countries awaiting the outcome of recent applications.

EMIGRANT COMMUNITY

The policy has allowed players such as former England under-21 captain Ben Thatcher to become a Welsh international and Tim Cahill of Everton, who played a few minutes as a teenager for Western Samoa, to be able to represent Australia, where he was born.

The first country to take advantage of the new rule was Algeria, who have a big emigrant community living in France and had long sought a change to the FIFA rules to take advantage of this reservoir of talent.

Within three months of the statute change, the Bastia defender Antar Yahia had become the first man since FIFA's rules on international eligibility were tightened in 1968 to play for more than one country, scoring on his debut for Algeria's Olympic team over Ghana in a qualifier for the Athens Games.

He played for the senior side at the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia in January and February after previously competing for France's under-18 side.

FIFA's decision to loosen the rules has helped many African nations to recruit top-class talent although its benefits have not been as marked as initially anticipated.

But those making an impact include former Arsenal and Paris St Germain striker Kaba Diawara, who has scored vital World Cup qualifying goals for his new country Guinea after having previously played for France at under-21 level.

Diawara is among 16 former French junior internationals now committed to other countries. Not all of them have been used though, for example Nantes's Emerse Fae, who cannot get into the Ivory Coast side despite their application to FIFA for a switch in his allegiance.

Others include Tottenham Hotspur striker Frederic Kanoute and more recently Liverpool defender Djimi Traore, who made his debut for Mali in a World Cup qualifier in October. But Mali are without a win after five qualifiers and bottom of their World Cup qualifying group.

GROUP PHASE

The tiny Cape Verde Islands, who have qualified for the group phase of the World Cup preliminaries for the first time, have used five former Portuguese junior internationals in their recent line-ups as they seek to make an impact in the African zone.

Angola, who are surprise group leaders, are seeking to reinforce their chances of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany by applying to use former Real Madrid defender Edgar, who now plays at Malaga.

The application of the former Portugal international was still pending, FIFA told Reuters.

There are many other footballers who could revive their international careers with a switch of allegiance but have yet to take advantage of the rule.

Belgium, for example, have capped 12 players of African extraction at junior level but whether those players will ever go on to win full international caps is the subject of conjecture.

The example can also be made of France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

One woman has also sought to make the change -- Belfast-born Christine Drain, 20, wants to play for the Republic of Ireland where she feels women's soccer is taken more seriously than in Northern Ireland, which she previously represented in goal at the age of 16. Her application is also pending.