Abstract
The Bosman ruling created free agency in professional soccer within the European Union (EU) by allowing players to move more easily between clubs and ending restrictions on the number of foreign players from EU nations a team could roster. It has been argued that this hurt various countries' national teams (because it inhibited the growth of domestic talent) and that at the club level the rich got richer as the best players gravitated to the top clubs in Europe. This study examines the performance of national and club teams in Europe before and after Bosman and finds that the effects are much less severe than has been hypothesized. Some national teams improved noticeably after Bosman while others became weaker. At the club level, there is little evidence that the competitive balance of the domestic leagues in Europe was harmed by Bosman.
Highlights
On December 15, 1995, the Bosman ruling changed the face of soccer within the European Union (EU)
The governing bodies in various European nations responded by immediately ending quotas on foreign players from EU countries for club matches played within their domestic leagues
This paper statistically examines the effects of the Bosman ruling on 1) the strength of national teams in Europe and 2) competitive balance within domestic leagues in the EU and in the Champions League
Summary
On December 15, 1995, the Bosman ruling changed the face of soccer within the European Union (EU). Bosman did not noticeably increase or decrease this type of competitive balance in the European domestic leagues, which is consistent with the results in Haan et al (2008) To examine whether these leagues became more heavily dominated by the same teams after Bosman, data are collected on the top three clubs each year for the eleven seasons before Bosman (1984/1985 to 1994/1995) and the eleven years after (1996/1997 to 2006/2007). The t-statistic to test the hypothesis that the probability did not change is 3.10, which rejects the null hypothesis of no effect due to Bosman at well beyond the one per cent level.[37] Clearly, the influx of top players to these countries has helped their clubs noticeably in soccer’s most prestigious club competition This increased stratification across club teams in the Europe is not necessarily bad, . To the extent that the flow of talent to England, the other Big Six Countries and the top teams in the Champions League has increased interest in the game in North America and Asia, the Bosman ruling has been a great success in terms of promoting football in those regions
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