Dutch youth internationals cleared to play for Suriname in World Cup qualifying playoffs

ZURICH (AP) — Ahead of World Cup qualifying playoffs next week, Leeds forward Joël Piroe has been cleared by FIFA to play for Suriname.

Piroe and Melayro Bogarde, a defender with Austrian club LASK, are Netherlands youth internationals with family ties to Suriname, which plays Bolivia on March 26.

FIFA published its approval late Wednesday for both players to change national team eligibility to represent the nation that got independence from the Netherlands in 1975. Suriname shares a border with Brazil on the northern tip of South America though plays in the CONCACAF soccer region that includes the Caribbean and central America.

Suriname faces Bolivia next Thursday in Monterrey, Mexico, in an intercontinental playoffs bracket to qualify for the World Cup. The winner plays Iraq five days later with a World Cup place at stake.

None of the players called up by Henk ten Cate, the former Ajax coach, plays for a club in Suriname.

The playoffs bracket winner will be in a tough World Cup group in June with France, Norway and Senegal.

The Netherlands soccer federation also signed off on FIFA changing the eligibility of 18-year-old Benjamin Khaderi, a midfielder with PSV Eindhoven, to Morocco.

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