How an unknown player for Belgium changed the face of football.
In 1997 Liverpool and England winger Steve McManaman was in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the Premier League club.
McManaman was one of the top players in the league and a Liverpudlian playing for his home town club, a positive conclusion for both parties seemed imminent.
Unfortunately for the club the conclusion that they wanted and the outcome McManaman had in mind weren’t synching up as negotiations broke down.
As much as ‘the reds’ wanted to keep hold of one of their prized assets, the club knew that there would be no shortage of takers for the mercurial winger and a handsome transfer fee could be gained if the player decided on a move.
After a proposed £12 million transfer to Spanish giants Barcelona failed to materialise, an £11 million offer from Italian club Juventus was rejected by the player. McManaman declined the offer of a new contract by Liverpool but also had no intention of signing with a new club until his contract expired.
In 1997 Liverpool and England winger Steve McManaman was in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the Premier League club.
McManaman was one of the top players in the league and a Liverpudlian playing for his home town club, a positive conclusion for both parties seemed imminent.
Unfortunately for the club the conclusion that they wanted and the outcome McManaman had in mind weren’t synching up as negotiations broke down.
As much as ‘the reds’ wanted to keep hold of one of their prized assets, the club knew that there would be no shortage of takers for the mercurial winger and a handsome transfer fee could be gained if the player decided on a move.
After a proposed £12 million transfer to Spanish giants Barcelona failed to materialise, an £11 million offer from Italian club Juventus was rejected by the player. McManaman declined the offer of a new contract by Liverpool but also had no intention of signing with a new club until his contract expired.
With five months remaining on his current deal McManaman signed a lucrative pre-contract with Real Madrid which earned McManaman a reported £2.6 million a year. Due to the nature of the contract negotiations for the players signature were between Real Madrid, Steve McManaman and his agent Simon Fuller, Liverpool were set to receive no transfer fee for their player who had been with the club for twelve years.
In the summer of 1999 the player left on a free transfer. McManaman’s situation was unique at the time. Players usually signed new contracts when offered or were sold to a different team with the cooperation of both clubs.
Since then, stories of players ‘running down’ their contracts at their current club in order to move freely to another are common place all over the world. It allows players to have the type of freedom in with their careers that was previously denied to them, and the trail blazer for this movement was a little known Belgian midfielder called Jean-Marc Bosman.
At the time the club had won eight league titles and six domestic trophies, he had also captained his country at youth level and won twenty caps.
After making eighty six appearances for Standard, Bosman made a move that would change his life, and subsequently football, forever.
R.F.C Liege brought Bosman from their local rivals in 1988 for a fee of £66,000, but after two years of being either on the bench or on the treatment table, the player wanted to switch clubs.
French outfit Dunkerque was seen as his salvation but R.F.C resisted when no transfer fee was forthcoming, the club then decreased Bosmans wages by an eye watering seventy five per-cent, ouch!
Bosman thought that the breakdown in the Dunkerque transfer and news spreading in football that he wanted to leave R.F.C for free had effectively left him blacklisted. Bosman felt he had no other option, he started legal proceedings against R.FC. Liege.
European Union (EU) law has a huge baring football (as well as other industries).Whilst the EU recognises the specificity of sport as an industry, there is no exemption or leeway given when it comes to EU law or regulation.
Bosmans case challenged the transfer systems in football including the foreign player quota system that only allowed a certain number of players representing that clubs country to play in European club matches.
For example, in the 1994/95 Champions League, a club like Manchester United who play in England, could only have five non-English players (three foreign transfers and two ‘assimilated’ players) in the starting line-up.
This meant the likes of Giggs, Hughes,Blackmore Keane, Irwin,Gillespie, Cantona, Kanchelskis & Schmeichel couldn’t all play only five could. The decision to change this would affect all clubs playing in the EU and would affect any UEFA sanctioned club competition.
In 1995 a momentous decision was made that changed football forever, the European Court of Justice found in favour of Jean-Marc Bosman and against R.F.C Liege and the Belgian Football Association.
They had came to two important conclusions. Players who were out of contract no longer had to wait for a club to bid for them, they could just negotiate directly with the interested club, if a second or third club showed interest they could listen to offers from all three if they wished. The quota system was also to be abolished, teams could sign as many foreign players as they liked from EU countries, there are still limits on players from outside the EU however.
In 2000, the European Commission (EC) who are part of the EU and deal with proposing legislation, implementing decisions and day-to-day running of the EU, decided to take action against footballing authorities because they felt that the transfer system still didn’t allow for full movement of employment.
The EC argued that players who wanted to break their contracts should be able to hand in a term of notice like you would in other lines of work and get paid a small amount of compensation in the process.
In 2001 the EC and FIFA came to a compromise, the regulations stated that European clubs could only operate at certain times during the year, this has since become known as the ‘Transfer Window’.
Other regulations include training compensation for players under twenty three years of age protection of contracts for the first 2-3 years by a sanction of four months for a player who breaches their contract.
The compensation is reflected by how much money would have been earned had the contract been completed and finally, the creation of an independent disciplinary system to deal with various contractual disputes.
The EC argued that players who wanted to break their contracts should be able to hand in a term of notice like you would in other lines of work and get paid a small amount of compensation in the process.
In 2001 the EC and FIFA came to a compromise, the regulations stated that European clubs could only operate at certain times during the year, this has since become known as the ‘Transfer Window’.
Other regulations include training compensation for players under twenty three years of age protection of contracts for the first 2-3 years by a sanction of four months for a player who breaches their contract.
The compensation is reflected by how much money would have been earned had the contract been completed and finally, the creation of an independent disciplinary system to deal with various contractual disputes.
When Manchester United played Barcelona at the Nou Camp in 1994, there were just nine foreign players between the two clubs in the starting 11. When the sides met in the group stages again in 1998, just three years on from the Bosman case, there were sixteen foreign starters, and it could have been more.
When Chelsea travelled to Southampton in 1999 the Premier League witnessed a first, an all foreign starting eleven which would have been inconceivable five years previous. Chelsea had signed players that could help them win honours both at home and in Europe, the likes of Romanian full back Dan Petrescu, French World Cup winner Didier Deschamps and Italian midfielder Roberto Di Matteo comprised Chelsea’s multi-national team.
The Premier League leads the way in terms of foreign players with sixty three per-cent of the players in the division coming from overseas, this has also coincided with a more dominant English influence in the Champions League and is widely regarded as bringing more quality to the league. Countries like Italy, Germany and Spain also have high numbers of overseas players despite those countries dominating club and international football previously.
When Chelsea travelled to Southampton in 1999 the Premier League witnessed a first, an all foreign starting eleven which would have been inconceivable five years previous. Chelsea had signed players that could help them win honours both at home and in Europe, the likes of Romanian full back Dan Petrescu, French World Cup winner Didier Deschamps and Italian midfielder Roberto Di Matteo comprised Chelsea’s multi-national team.
The Premier League leads the way in terms of foreign players with sixty three per-cent of the players in the division coming from overseas, this has also coincided with a more dominant English influence in the Champions League and is widely regarded as bringing more quality to the league. Countries like Italy, Germany and Spain also have high numbers of overseas players despite those countries dominating club and international football previously.
Today, quotas banning a certain number of foreign players from representing a club are illegal, it is a form of discrimination based on the grounds of nationality and is prohibited by EU law and any attempt to re-introduce the foreign player limitations like the rule pre-Bosman would be challenged by the EU.
As a result of this FIFA’s proposed ‘6+5’ rule, which aimed at regaining national identity in club teams by forcing them to field six players eligible to play for the county of the teams origin, had to be scrapped, this however was seen as indirect discrimination rather than direct.
The EU also sanctioned a Competition Law and prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position, in recent years the EU have successfully challenged both UEFA and FIFA over ticketing prices for the World Cups in France (1998) and Germany (2006) and the rights for the Champions League and the Premier League have been broken down to an extent.
A positive move for the Competition Law is that the much talked about ‘European Super League’, a tournament that would see Europe’s top clubs leave their domestic leagues and compete against each other, would be seen as unlawful.
As a result of this FIFA’s proposed ‘6+5’ rule, which aimed at regaining national identity in club teams by forcing them to field six players eligible to play for the county of the teams origin, had to be scrapped, this however was seen as indirect discrimination rather than direct.
The EU also sanctioned a Competition Law and prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position, in recent years the EU have successfully challenged both UEFA and FIFA over ticketing prices for the World Cups in France (1998) and Germany (2006) and the rights for the Champions League and the Premier League have been broken down to an extent.
A positive move for the Competition Law is that the much talked about ‘European Super League’, a tournament that would see Europe’s top clubs leave their domestic leagues and compete against each other, would be seen as unlawful.
Five year contracts tend to be the norm for players coming up to or reaching their peak years. This trend doesn’t extend beyond Europe’s top divisions however, smaller clubs or clubs who aren’t financially secure can’t afford to tie players to long term contracts, which is why many clubs release and recruit a high volume of players from season to season as clubs miss out on potentially lucrative fees for their top players.
This can happen in the top divisions as well, the likes of Edgar Davids, Michael Ballack and Sol Campbell are examples of top international players who left their respective clubs when their contracts had come to an end.
One of the most telling effects of the ruling is that clubs offer huge wages to a potential transfer target which sees the player ask for a wage increase at their current club or they threaten to leave which inflates the entire market to the extent that people in the media are starting speculate when will we see the first £1 million pound a week footballer.
And what of the man who started it all? Jean-Marc Bosman was free to join whoever he wanted; he played for a few clubs in the French lower leagues as well as a stint at Charleroi where he was being paid £650 a week.
He received £720,000 in compensation from his historic court case and invested it in two houses, one that he lived in and another that he rented out as well as a BMW.
These days however the euphoria of his landmark case has vanished as he is living in his parents converted garage, on benefits, unable to see is two children and struggling to stay sober.
When a player is signed for no transfer fee the phrase “a Bosman transfer” was used, nowadays “a free transfer” is the accepted football language for that scenario, even his name has been removed from the legacy of what his single minded determination achieved, not just for players, but for fans .Since the ruling some of the best players from all over the world are playing in the top divisions and we have had the privilege of watching them first hand.
He received £720,000 in compensation from his historic court case and invested it in two houses, one that he lived in and another that he rented out as well as a BMW.
These days however the euphoria of his landmark case has vanished as he is living in his parents converted garage, on benefits, unable to see is two children and struggling to stay sober.
When a player is signed for no transfer fee the phrase “a Bosman transfer” was used, nowadays “a free transfer” is the accepted football language for that scenario, even his name has been removed from the legacy of what his single minded determination achieved, not just for players, but for fans .Since the ruling some of the best players from all over the world are playing in the top divisions and we have had the privilege of watching them first hand.