BOSMAN RULING ENDS UP BADLY

October 30th 2020  was  Jean-Marc Bosman' birth day, he is 56. He was an unremarkable midfielder from Belgian, who entered into a dispute with his club over a contractual technicality. 

Overall Bosman played at Standard de Liege making 86 apps and scored 3 goals: then RFC de Liege 3 apps: Olympique St Quentin 12 apps, Olympique Charleroi 2...103 total apps and 4 goals, between 1983-95.  For Belgium he won at U21 20 caps.

In 1988, he made headline news over his transfer.

Several years later, the outcome of this legal "spat" was to change football contracts for ever. Pre-Bosman, in some parts of Europe, clubs could prevent a player from joining another club, in another country, even if their contract had expired.

Bosman was signed by RFC Liege, in Belgium's First Division, on a two year contract when his old contract expired in 1990. On his contract's expiry, a prospective new deal with Liege would have reduced his wages by 60%. But an offer of signing on for French club, Dunkerque, was a potential solution, however they were only prepared to offer half the £250,000 price Liege were demanding and Liege refused to let him go. He was no longer a first team player, so his wages went down and his case went to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and he sued for "restraint of trade".

The case was that by retaining his registration and demanding a transfer fee, even after his contract had expired, Liege were in breach of European Union Law, which was supposed to safeguard the free movement of workers between member states. 

In the UK, Transfer Tribunals had been in place since 1981 to resolve such issues. The Bosman ruling meant that players could move to a new club at the end of their contract without their old club receiving a fee. Players can now agree a "pre-contract" with another club for a free transfer, if the players' contract with their existing club had six months or less remaining.

In December 1995, the court agreed and ruled in Bosman's favour, making players even more powerful than before. England stars Steve McManaman and Sol Campbell chose to see out their contracts in order to negotiate lucrative moves away from their clubs where they had been, nurtured, developed and idolised over many years. McManama became Britain's first high profile Bosman departure when he left Liverpool to go to Real Madrid. He became the highest paid player in Europe at the time from 1999until 2001.

This also quashed the UEFA regulation limiting the number of foreign players that could appear in European competition for one club and attracted top players offering attractive wages to "out of contract players". Smaller clubs, who used to benefit from winning large transfer fees for their rising talent, lost out because bigger clubs could wait until contracts expired and they would pick up "rising stars" for nothing.

Clubs could not block moves or demand a fee if the player had run out his contract and wanted to leave. 

I am conscious that this may be read by one or two ex-lawyers who will know and understand much more of this than I. So here's a link that might make everything more clear! It's a cartoon.......which I sort of get....

https://the18.com/soccer-videos/rule-changed-football-forever 

Bosman ended up bankrupt, his marriage failed, he made bad investments and was imprisoned following an assault on his wife and daughter, he sold his "second" house and Porsche Carrera, he became depressed, did community servce, his lifestyle led to acoholism, unemployment and a reliance on handouts from FIFPro....an organisation that helps fallen footballers.