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The increasing commercialisation of sport raises important questions concerning regulation. The development of the European Union (EU) and the internationalization of sporting competition have added an international dimension to this debate. Yet sport is not only a business, it is a social and cultural activity. Can regulation at the EU level reconcile this tension? Adopting a distinctive legal and political analysis, this book argues that the EU is receptive to the claim of sport for special treatment before the law. It investigates the birth of EU sports law and policy by examining the impact of the Bosman ruling and other important European Court of Justice decisions, the relationship between sport and EU competition law, focusing particularly on the broadcasting of sport, the organization of sport and the international transfer system, and the relationship between sport and the EU Treaty, focusing in particular on the impact of the Amsterdam and Nice declarations on sport and the significance of the Helsinki report on sport. This text raises questions concerning the appropriate theoretical tools for analysing European integration.
seen the birth of a discrete area of sports law operating within the context of a more holistic EU sports policy. EU sports law and policy The Bosman ruling was a turning point for sport. It led to the creation of the sports policy subsystem. Actors unhappy at the economic Single Market approach the ECJ adopted in relation to sport, co-ordinated their activity to seek greater protection for sport from the application of EU law. As each coalition possessed the ability to undermine each other other’s deep and policy core belief systems, coalition mediation took place
synonymous with a ‘country’. The main exception is the United Kingdom, which (for historical reasons) is divided between the four Associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Misunderstandings on these two consequences of the Bosman ruling abound, even in academic publications.6 As Stephen Weatherill Ranc, Foreign Players and Football Supporters.indd 1 19/12/2011 14:21:40 2 Foreign players and football supporters has argued, both international transfers within the EU and transfers between clubs of the same Member State are affected by Bosman.7
games was, at best, mediocre? Consequently, how do these supporters relate to their club and through which means do they identify with it? In recent years, what has been the evolution of the supporters’ relations with their club? Did the Bosman ruling and the subsequent change in rules regarding foreign players affect their relationship with their club? Building up partisanship Founding a major club in a hostile context The very history of the club until the Bosman ruling is of particular relevance to this study. It can be analysed as an attempt to build a club with
Football Club, starting with its history until the Bosman ruling and the development of a perceived English identity. A North London identity and marketing considerations For most of its history Arsenal has been a North London club,2 where it has developed a strong local following and identity. Originally founded in Woolwich (Kent) as the Royal Arsenal in 1886, it moved to Highbury in 1913.3 The decision to relocate more than 10 miles away from its original headquarters was overtly guided by the wish to benefit from ‘a greater supporter base’,4 which could be found in a
should be included as an area of formal competence in the Treaty. The Bosman setback 1995–1997 The 1995 Bosman ruling represented a set back for many socio-cultural actors despite the Larive report’s desire to see the lifting of restrictions placed on the movement of sportsmen and women. Bosman confirmed the predominance of the EU’s market-based definition of sport at the expense of the social definition. In short, the Bosman approach was inconsistent with the Adonnino agenda. Reconciling sport and law 167 The Pack report on the Role of the European Union in the
the 1995 Bosman ruling, they even seem to have accepted the fact that many Celtic and Rangers players could be foreign as well, and thus completely alien to the Glasgow traditions, the very reasons for the rivalry that is contained in the Old Firm. Yet, the intensity of the support both communities each give to their team seems not to have decreased. The opposition between Rangers and Celtic therefore provides a particularly salient case to study how the introduction of players deemed ‘strangers’ to a club’s identity affects its support – the main reason why the
players resulting from the Bosman ruling. The two other case studies build on the results of the Glaswegian study to focus on the effect of the Bosman ruling in widely differing settings. In order to provide a solid basis for comparison, all three cases have been studied over the same length of time: the first ten years (or more precisely, full football seasons) following the introduction or multiplication in the number of ‘strangers’ (Catholics or foreigners). Rangers changed its policy in 1989 so the period studied in the case of Glasgow is 1989–2000. Semi
of the ‘imagined communities’ of supporters, as it has a major part in creating the collective memory of a club. Three main sets of findings can be derived from the case studies. They show without any ambiguity that the influx of foreign players following the Bosman ruling has not fundamentally altered supporters’ capacity to identify with their club. The role of the press in this process needs to be reassessed in the light of the reaction that the printed media have gathered from the supporters. The processes through which emblems and people have come to symbolise
Bosman ruling by the European Commission (EC) in 1995. These will be discussed later in this chapter. At this juncture, it is sufficient to say that, combined, these developments, particularly where they intersected with favourable immigration policies in a range of European countries, effectively lessened barriers in terms of accessing and pursuing a career in European football and contributed to a further surge in the number of African players making the move northwards. Indeed, at the turn of the new millennium, the number of African migrant footballers across all