Jean-Marc Bosman

Jean-Marc Bosman former Belgian football player, midfielder. His professional career began in 1983 at the age of 19 at the club Standard (Liège). For 5 years, Bosman played 86 games for the team, scoring 3 goals, twice playing in the final of the Belgian Cup. In addition, Bosman was a player of the youth Belgium team and was its captain. In 1988, Jean-Marc moved to the club "Liège" he signed a contract for two years. After the contract ended, Liège offered the player a new agreement with cuts in salary (first by 50%, and then by 75%). Naturally, Bosman did not like such a proposal, and he wanted to go to the Dunkirk team, which offered Jean-Marc a more advantageous agreement.

This is where the story for which this article was created begins. In our time Bosman without any obligations under the contract with the last team, could easily transfer to the new club, but in accordance with the rules in force in 1990, the club had the rights to compensation for the football player within two years after the end of the contract. Taking advantage of this, Liège put out a sum of compensation in the amount of 1.000.000 US dollars for a football player, Dunkirk could not pay such a sum. Then Bosman decided to find a lawyer and go to court. In the nearest lawyers' bureau, nobody wanted to take up his case, except the young Jean-Louis Dupont, for whom the Bosman case was the first in his career.

Proceedings

First they filed a lawsuit against the club itself, and then the case went to a higher level and dealt directly with FIFA and UEFA. The applicants required the cancellation of the club's right to demand compensation for a football player who did not have an active contract with him, but later the requirements were extended and included the abolition of the quota for legionaries within the European Union previously working on the 3 + 2 system, that is, clubs could not have more than three legionnaires and two "naturalized" players (athletes who have played in the country for 5 years or more).

Officials of FIFA and UEFA initially did not pay serious attention to the lawsuit of a football player and lawyers unknown to them, but over time their position changed, and they suggested that Bosman agreement with payments in favor of the player. But Bosman started this process not because of money, but because of justice. As a result, five years later in 1995 Bosman's suit was satisfied, the footballer received 500,000 as compensation, and the illegality of the limit on legionaries against players from EU countries was also recognized. Later the limit on players from non-EU countries was canceled as a result of the case of Russian football player Igor Simutenkov in 2003.

Consequences for the player.

After Bosman started a process with Liège, he obviously could not play for any team, thus losing his livelihood, his wife left with his daughter, and the footballer moved to his parents, and was living into the garage for 2.5 years. The amount he won in court was enough for him only to pay the lawyer and liquidate the accumulated debts. Further football career with Bosman also failed - he unsuccessfully tried to play in the minor French and Belgian leagues. In 2015, Bosman was forced to live on social benefits, periodically performing lawn care work at one of the local stadiums, but later Jean-Marc lost the right to this, because according to state authorities, he did not make the necessary efforts to find job.

Consequences for football

As a result of Bosman's victory in court, the right of clubs to compensate for a football player who did not have an active contract with him was canceled. Also, the limit on foreign players was abolished. This exacerbated the competition of clubs in the struggle for the best players, which led to an increase in the transfer value and the salaries of players. The rich clubs have more opportunities to attract more qualified personnel, and as a result, the gap between the best and the rest of the clubs has grown significantly. Also, the changes seriously influence the clubs actively working with young people and their academies graduates, rather than buying ready-made stars. Also, the words of English / French / Spanish football disappeared, and Arsène Wenger became the first coach who released on the field a squad without a single Englishman in the England Premier League game.