Stand up for your rights in the EU "the Bosman rule" ● SPORT Time

Union Royale Belge des Societes de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman
European Court of Justice, 15 December 1995

The moment After his contract with RFC Liege expired in 1990, Jean-Marc Bosman attempted to move to Dunkerque. However, since the French club did not offer the Belgian side their expected transfer fee, Liege refused to sanction in the move. Since he was no longer a first-team player, Bosman’s wages were also reduced. As such, the 26-year-old striker took his case to the European Court of Justice and sued for restraint of trade. Five years later, the court ruled that the system placed a restriction on the free movement of worked and was prohibited by the EC Treaty.

They said

“The pressure of the case was very great. The European Community did not want to have to change the system. It was morally difficult.” Bosman

“I must be Belgiam’s most famous football player, but no one knows who I am.” Bosman, 2011

“I ended a system of slavery. But it ruined my life.”

What it meant In the micro, that players could switch clubs without a transfer fee as soon as their contracts ended. In the macro, a complete alteration to the dynamics of European football. The ruling has been seen as the key incident in football’s exponential move to a massive business in which money rules all, with the dispersal of Ajax’s 1995 Champions League team the most immediate example. Another effect was a lifting of the cap on “foreign players” in continental football. For Bosman himself, it meant little. He effectively lost his career and, eventually, any money he actually made from the ruling.