Poor Jack Wilshere. He hasn't had the greatest week. First he was caught smoking by the press and forced into some pretty hasty apologies (after he tried to call the incident a 'prank'), and now he has been criticised for his comments regarding the nationalisation of players for the England football team. All this before arguably two of England's biggest games in recent history.

While it's true, he was an idiot for smoking whilst on a night out, thinking no-one would see him and then trying to cover the whole incident up with a rather patchy cover story - the situation was one step away from the police being called to find a man with ginger hair, eyepatch and a a hook for a hand - the furore over his comments yesterday has been nothing short of ridiculous.

Kevin Pietersen, probably this country's most high profile naturalised sportsman, had a Twitter pop at Wilshere when the England midfielder tried to clarify his comments, writing, "interested to know how you define foreigner...? Would that include me, Strauss, Trott, Prior, Justin Rose, Froome, Mo Farah?"

And Wilshere, with all credit, responded well tweeting: "To be clear, never said 'born in England' – I said English people should play for England,"

"Great respect for people like KP [Kevin Pietersen], Mo Farah and Wilf Zaha – they make the country proud.

"My view on football – going to a new country when ur an adult, & because u can get a passport u play 4 that national team – I disagree. Just saying my opinion, everyone is entitled to theirs. Can't wait for Friday night …"

With the reaction yesterday over the comments, anyone would have thought that Wilshere had stood up in the presser and started reciting Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech.

What he did was state an opinion, and one that I think for the good of sport is a correct and justified one. Sportspeople like Mo Farah and Pietersen are English: Farah has lived in the country since he was eight, and Pietersen moved to the country because of his English mother to play for England. But most importantly of all, they identify themselves as English. 

As Wilshere said, someone who travels to a new country when they're an adult and gets a passport so they can play for another country should not be considered: they are never going to identify themselves with their adopted homeland. And even if they did, the formative nature of their true homeland would have had enough of an impact on them already. What's the point in having a player compete for you when he did all of his training in another country under their coaches? It defeats the object of competition.

International sport is about nations competing against other nations. And the minute you start having Brazilians playing for Spain or Belgians playing for England is the time when action needs to be taken.

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