Professional team sports — nationality discrimination and EU law
Keywords:
sports law, European law, internal market, free movement of workers, team sports, footballAbstract
There is an ongoing conflict involving the right to regulate sport in the EU. Sports associations emphasize that sport is special and different from other industries, whereas the EU stresses interests related to the internal market. This article discusses free movement of workers and nationality discrimination in professional team sports. The focus is on the Finnish sports scene, but the problem is also examined on a more European level. All in all, direct discrimination is rare nowadays, while indirectly discriminatory provisions are still common. In addition to the homegrown players rule, the biggest problem in Finnish sports is that domestic transfers are often treated more favorably than international transfers. The problem stems from the fact that there are two regulators: the national associations and the international federations. The discriminatory rules and practices in Finnish sports pursue legitimate aims but they are likely not compatible with the free movement of workers because they are not proportionate.
