BARCELONA – “Footballers earn millions thanks to me, but I live in misery.” The phrase is from Jean-Marc Bosman, the guy who without being aware of what made him star in the biggest revolution in football history. The forgotten man who broke the borders and globalized the sport king from the famous Bosman Law, whose sentence this December 15 will be 25 years.
No one remembered Bosman. Neither the cracks that from one day to the next went from being foreigners to being community and, thanks to that, to multiplying their contribution, nor the non-community foreigners who will benefit from the link to open more doors and much less the clubs, which had expanded as never before had suspected radar in their hiring. But everyone benefited from it.
The Bosman ruling, which is said to have been announced on December 15, changed the scene in the footsteps of European football in an unimaginable way. And, with that, the power of the four great Leagues of Europe was consolidated (Spain, Italy, England and Germany), their clubs conquered since then all the titles of the Champions League until 2004 by the Port and the 18 of 24 in the Europa League.
What was the Bosman sentence? Established, through the Court of Justice of the European Union, the end to the limitation of the number of European foreign athletes in the professional competitions of each country. What does this mean? Speaking clearly, Barcelona, for example, had the power to line up an unlimited team of French, Italian, British and German players. And without Spaniards if he so wished.
THE BATTLE
The sentence handed down on December 15 closed a long legal battle started by Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman five years earlier. In 1990 Bosman, 24, ended his contract with Liege and did not satisfy the offer of renewed renewal by accepting a proposal from Dunkirk, the French 2nd Division. But in accordance with the regulations, Liège demanded compensation of 11.7 million Belgian francs ($ 352 thousand), which Dunkirk refused to pay, which is why the player’s sporting future was blocked by Liège.
Represented by a young and unknown lawyer named Jean-Louis Dupont, Bosman demanded that Liège, the Belgian Federation and UEFA claim his freedom, in a long process that began with everything against, without anyone’s support but which ended up leading to the most important judicial dispute known in the history of football: it is determined that compensation for transfers of players at the end of the contract was not legal but, even more, that will abolish the quotas of foreign athletes among citizens of the Union European.
The verdict handed down on 15 December did nothing more than apply the principle of free movement of workers to professional sport and although UEFA reacted, it soon found it impossible to “put doors in the woods”.
The sentence was considered immediate and enforced. And although it took a few months, its effects began to be devastating before the following season in the Leagues of Spain, Italy, France, England, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Denmark or Scotland. part of the European Union.
THE REACTIONS
Unintentionally, Bosman had opened a stage unknown to everyone. FIFA tried to restore significance by limiting the range of action “to only 21 of our 193 affiliated federations” while UEFA defended its position against the childish argument that its headquarters were in Switzerland, outside of the power of the European Union. Of course, no luck.
The clubs, at the outset, remained silent while waiting for the dance to begin while prominent figures such as Johan Cruyff warned of the danger of “wild change” and the need to “find formulas” to protect young players and especially quarries of the clubs, to which they intuit like “great harmed”.
The Dutchman, always revolutionary, launched the idea of a ‘6 + 5’ rule according to which without conflicting with the law, on the field of play always had to match at least six players selectable by the country of the team in competition. His proposal was simply outlined because it was revealed that this contravened the original spirit of the ruling, given that any club could, in fact, have a plant made with only foreign players.
Franz Beckenbauer also expressed opposition to the change, warning that the pre-sentencing system was “best suited for football, footballers and clubs”, calling for “meetings to improve conditions” but avoiding a drastic change. UEFA president Lennart Johansson called on clubs to be “cautious” and advised them “not to challenge the institutions until the relevant decisions are made” … But the door opened. And it can no longer be closed again.
THE CONSEQUENCES
In the 1995-96 season Spanish clubs had the power to have under contract five foreigners in their staff, outside of which outside their country of origin, although only
they could line up three at a time. Barcelona had Figo, Kodro, Hagi, Popescu and Prosinecki while Real Madrid had Laudrup, Zamorano, Redondo, Esnáider and Rincón. In the summer of 1996 Madrid signed the German Illgner, the Italian Panucci, the Dutchman Seedorf, the Montenegrin Mijatovic, the Croatian Suker and the Brazilians Roberto Carlos and Zé Roberto at the same time as Barça, of which Kodro, Hagi and Prosinecki left, joining the Portuguese Vítor Baía y Couto, the Frenchman Blanc, the Argentine Pizzi, the Nigerian Amunike, the Brazilians Ronaldo and Giovanni and the Bulgarian (back) Stoichkov, who joined Figo (Portugal) and Popescu (Romania).
In this way, from one season to another, both Real Madrid and Barcelona went on to have a gap of Spanish players in their type to only four. And it was a circumstance that was reproduced among the clubs of the Leagues across the continent to open a gap between the big ones, with more financial possibilities and higher television revenues, and the others, many of which were dismantled, with Ajax com great example.
The Dutch club, European champion in 1995 and runner-up in 1996, was razed by an emerging market that annihilated its staff. Reiziger, Bogarde, Davids and Kluivert (Milan), Van der Sar (Juventus), Litmanen, Frank and Ronald de Boer (Barcelona), Musampa (Bordeaux), Kanu (Inter), Overmars (Arsenal), Finidi (Betis), Wooter (Zaragoza) or Melchiot (Chelsea) were leaving Amsterdam until 1999, in the same way that second-tier clubs saw the possibility of signing players from another country for a much more affordable price than a national or footballers without great fanfare they would change state, club, and country, in a way I could not have imagined in the past.
Ajax’s rival in the 1995 final, Milan, had nine Italians. In the 1997-98 season there were only four: Rossi, Maldini, Costacurta and Albertini, with whom played the French Ba and Desailly, the German Ziege, the Brazilian Leonardo, the Croatian Boban, the Dutch Kluivert and the Liberian Weah. And in the squad were also Davids, André Cruz, Savicevic, Andersson, Smoje, Nilsen, Beloufa, Bogarde and Blomqvist.
In addition to him, the footballers enjoyed, enjoyed since then, a scene unthinkable before. Clubs lost all control over a player when he ended his contract. What so much had pursued Bosman. And that he achieved, no matter how much his outside, on a personal level, a Pyrrhic victory.
In 1998 the Belgian, retired two years before in a club of 4ª Division of his country, received an indemnity of 280 thousand Euros with his name already wrote in letters of gold in books of history of soccer but with the his person submerged in a well. Ruined and forgotten, he subsisted on a pension of 570 euros which was added to small amounts donated by the FIFPro union or individual players.
In 2019 he gave an interview to the newspaper Bild in which he explained a curious case. A unique case. “Last year Rabiot’s mother lived my story in a documentary and decided to help me. She came to see me with Adrien’s brother and gave me 12 thousand euros, it was before Adrien left the first team in December so that it is not renewed with the PSG “. Not everyone forgot about their fight …