The Labour Status of Professional Football Players in the European Union

Abstract

In 1995, the Bosman ruling granted professional football players the same free movement rights as regular workers. More than 20 years later, the question whether these rights are truly enjoyed still provides for never ending legal and academic debates. An important issue concerns the fact that professional football players are considered workers under national law in most EU Member States, but in some States they are deemed to be self-employed. The choice of one labour status over another has meaningful consequences in terms of social security rights, tax duties, collective labour representation, or more broadly, contractual rights. Such discrepancies at national level lead to two fundamental EU law questions that we aim to address in the present article: Are professional football players subject to the secondary EU legislation applicable to workers when they are in a bogus self-employment relationship: And, can the qualification of football players as self-employed be deemed a restriction on their free movement rights?