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

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.

Keywords: European Soccer, Bosman Ruling, Team Performance

JEL Classification: L83