Labour market controls in sport: soccer's transfer system post-Bosman

Abstract

Labour marker controls in sport have been around since the very beginning of professional leagues, with the stated intention of helping to create a more even, and therefore financially more viable competition. Soccer's transfer system is one of the best known of these market controls, and Jean-Marc Bosman's successful 1996 challenge to the system in the European Court of Justice must rank as a landmark sports law case. However, while this ruling abolished the transfer system for players whose contracts had concluded, a compromise reached in 2001 between the relevant governing bodies of soccer, FIFA and UEFA, and the European Commission, maintained the system for players still under contract. The result was a set of regulations called Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (Status Regulations) which set out the requirements for these transfers.

This article will therefore provide a review of soccer's the transfer system post-Bosman, and the effectiveness of the Status Regulations in the seven years that they have been in operation.