The consequences of an open labour market in a closed product market in the economic environment of European professional football

Trudo Dejonghe () and Wim Van Opstal ()

No 830, Working Papers from International Association of Sports Economists

Abstract: Ever since the Bosman case opened the labour market for players in European professional football, competitive balance has reduced in favour of the Big 5 leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France). In this article we show that changing structures towards an open labour market in a closed product market resulted in a migration of player talents towards the major leagues and teams and in a competitive disadvantage for the smaller market leagues and their teams. Next to a theoretical argumentation, we provide empirical evidence and assess future options for the structure of European professional football.

Keywords: Bosman case; competitive balance; international labour mobility; professional team sports; stepping stone league (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 L52 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-spo
Date: 2008-12
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spe:wpaper:0830

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