Nationality and protectionism in football: why are FIFA’s ‘6+5 rule’ and UEFA’s ‘home-grown player rule’ on the agenda?

Abstract

Over the last few years, football and other European team sports have sought to reintroduce measures that can be identified as being in the guise of nationality quotas and are protectionist in nature. In football, UEFA has introduced the ‘home-grown player rule’; FIFA initially promoted and then recently decided to apply a moratorium on introducing the so-called ‘6 + 5 rule’. Both of these measures will be examined as to their rationale in sporting terms and their legality under European Union (EU) law in the wake of the Bosman ruling. There also appears to be a ‘turf war’ between UEFA and FIFA as to the right to govern football with regards to this measure. The authors have always argued that it is in the interest of footballers and fans to have full international freedom of movement and that protectionist measures such as playing quotas are an anathema to the good of the game.