how soccer’s mega-money era was sparked by a little-known Belgian athlete
- Written by David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
When famous soccer players come to mind, it is usually revered pioneers such as Pelé, Bobby Charlton and Diego Maradona.
Later came Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Samantha Kerr.
But who has heard of Jean-Marc Bosman[1]?
A man who changed soccer forever
Anyone interested in association football (soccer) or sport in general should know about Bosman.
He is responsible for the European Court of Justice’s landmark December 1995 Bosman Ruling[2] (often just called Bosman) that enabled players in Europe to move freely between clubs.
This rather obscure Belgian soccer player, who never represented his country at senior level, is arguably as or more important to the world game and some other sports such as basketball[4] than much more gifted athletes.
Elements of the Bosman story echo the late-19th-century feudalism of the Netflix series The English Game[5]. Akin to peasants unable to switch lords and ladies of the manor, professional soccer players in the late 20th century were still forcibly attached to clubs.
Soccer goes to court
In 1990, Bosman was at the end of his contract with Belgian club RFC Liège and wanted to move to French club Dunkerque.
References
- ^ Jean-Marc Bosman (www.transfermarkt.com)
- ^ December 1995 Bosman Ruling (link.springer.com)
- ^ STF/AFP via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com.au)
- ^ basketball (journalofsportsmedicine.org)
- ^ The English Game (www.netflix.com)
- ^ Game changers: how one team’s dominance transformed rugby league forever (theconversation.com)
- ^ ruled in his favour (eur-lex.europa.eu)
- ^ recruiting, retaining and remunerating players (scholarship.law.marquette.edu)
- ^ overheated transfer market and hyper-commercialised football (www.sportandeu.com)
- ^ enormous financial losses (www.bbc.com)
- ^ capital into soccer (blog.mergerscorp.com)
- ^ financial fair play (www.espn.com.au)
- ^ financial sustainability (www.uefa.com)
- ^ globalised sport market (library.oapen.org)
- ^ FIFPRO (www.fifpro.org)
- ^ more games in more competitions (fifpro.org)
- ^ promotional tours (www.researchgate.net)
- ^ Craig Johnston (www.google.com.au)
- ^ post-Bosman honeypot (www.uefa.com)
- ^ European Union (www.entsportslawjournal.com)
- ^ English Premier League (www.routledge.com)
- ^ Rupert Murdoch’s media empire (www.hachette.com.au)
- ^ the richest league in Europe (www.insidermedia.com)
- ^ around A$5.5 billion (football-observatory.com)
- ^ Brexit (doi.org)
- ^ mobility template (doi.org)
- ^ players and fans (doi.org)
- ^ corporate-capitalist underbelly (humanities.org.au)
- ^ inequalities (chesterrep.openrepository.com)
- ^ women’s game (www.readings.com.au)
- ^ Bosman benefited little (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ conviction for assaulting his partner (www.bbc.com)
- ^ fabulously rich footballers (www.insidethegames.biz)
- ^ served notice of a class action (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ Lassana Diarra (www.melbournesla.com)
- ^ Jean-Louis Dupont (www.bbc.com)
- ^ Bosman: The Player Who Changed Football (www.imdb.com)
Authors: David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
