What If: No Bosman Ruling

Jean-Marc Bosman suffers a career-ending injury in the late 1980s, and a certain 1995 trial does not take place.

What could happen in the following 20 years?

Considering how badly the Belgian and Dutch football leagues were affected by the ruling, maybe it will be the Netherlands that will win the 2010 World Cup. :D

On a more serious note, the Premier League might not turn into the oil magnate-run business it is now, and Barcelona and Real Madrid might not become able to monopolize the Liga.
 
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Jean-Marc Bosman suffers a career-ending injury in the late 1980s, and a certain 1995 trial does not take place.

What could happen in the following 20 years?

Considering how badly the Belgian and Dutch football leagues were affected by the ruling, maybe it will be the Netherlands that will win the 2010 World Cup. :D

On a more serious note, the Premier League might not turn into the oil magnate-run business it is now, and Barcelona and Real Madrid might not become able to monopolize the Liga.
If it hadn't been Bosman it would have been someone else. Sooner or later a case would have gone to court when a player out of contract wanted to move and the club said no. I see no way anything would really have been changed.
 

Devvy

Donor
Likewise; I can't see how the ruling can't be handed down eventually.

The situation before, where a player can sign a contract for x years, and then even after that contract has ended, be at the mercy of the club is simply untenable.
 
Likewise; I can't see how the ruling can't be handed down eventually.

The situation before, where a player can sign a contract for x years, and then even after that contract has ended, be at the mercy of the club is simply untenable.
And I'd argue it should be. Why should a club be able to prevent an employee (which is what a professional footballer is, in the end) from finding work when they are no longer the employer of that player?
 

Devvy

Donor
And I'd argue it should be. Why should a club be able to prevent an employee (which is what a professional footballer is, in the end) from finding work when they are no longer the employer of that player?

More succinctly put then by me!
 
More succinctly put then by me!
It's why I never have any time for the argument that the Bosman ruling was a bad thing. In what other area (excepting public service roles where there could be a conflict of interest) does an employer have the right to tell their former employee where they can seek work once they are out of contract? The Bosman ruling was 100% correct and just. It may have been a negative for the clubs, but I would rather that than the unjust situation out of contract players found themselves in.
 
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