The Effects of the Bosman Ruling on National and Club Teams in Europe

Abstract

The Bosman ruling and its aftermath allowed soccer players to move more freely between clubs in Europe. This study examines the performance of national and club teams in Europe before and after Bosman. Some national teams improved after the ruling while others became weaker, but the overall effects are small. At the club level, there is little evidence that the competitive balance of the domestic leagues in Europe was seriously harmed, although in the Champions League the top clubs appear to have become noticeably stronger.

Longitudinal match performance characteristics of UK and non-UK players in the English Premier League

“…Research to date on the involvement of UK and non-UK players in the EPL has focussed on migration patterns (Maguire & Pearton, 2000;Richardson et al, 2012), the legal aspects of player movement (Gardiner & Welch, 2011) and the impact of migration on national teams (Binder & Findlay, 2012;Maguire & Pearton, 2000). To our knowledge, although some research has analysed the differences between different leagues (Dellal et al, 2011;James, Mellalieu, & Hollely, 2002) (Bradley, Bendiksen, et al, 2014;Krustrup et al, 2003).…”

“…Despite supporting evidence, a commonly held belief within the game is that the increased migration of non-UK players into the EPL could account for these recent alterations in technical performances (Richardson, Littlewood, Nesti, & Benstead, 2012), although its unclear why such pronounced increases have been observed in physical performances. The increased proportion of non-UK players in the EPL is related to the Bosman ruling which abolished foreign player quotas for clubs, allowing teams to buy non-UK players without restriction (Binder & Findlay, 2012;Littlewood, Mullen, & Richardson, 2011;Richardson et al, 2012).…”

When Drains and Gains Coincide: Migration and International Football Performance

“…For discussions on the implications of the Bosman ruling, see e.g. Simmons (1997), Szymanski (1999), Antonioni and Cubbin (2000), Ericson (2000), Feess and Muelheusser, (2003), Penn (2006), Binder andFindlay (2009) andFrick (2009). 5 See e.g.…”

Soccer jersey sponsors and the world cup

“…The marginal effects are quite high, but the statistical significance is not robust regarding the estimation method." Paul and Mitra (2008) also find that higher ranked FIFA teams have higher probabilities to win, using data of the WC 1994-2006. Binder and Findlay (2012 6 For a systematic approach to evaluate the accuracy of alternative forecasting methods, see Fenton and Constantinou (2010;2011).…”