The Legacy of Bosman - Revisiting the Relationship between EU Law and Sport
Series: ASSER International Sports Law Series

In December 1995, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in its most famous case to date: the Bosman case. Twenty years later, this book explores in detail how this landmark judgment legally and politically transformed the relationship between the European Union and sport. Written by leading academics in the field, the ten contributions in this book reflect on how Bosman fundamentally shaped the application of EU law to sport and on its transformative effects on sports governance. The book’s innovative perspectives on the Bosman ruling makes it important reading for scholars, practitioners and policy-makers concerned with EU law and Sport.

Dr. Antoine Duval is Senior Researcher for International and European Sports Law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague. He holds a Ph.D. on the interaction between Lex Sportiva and EU Law from the European University Institute in Florence. Prof. Dr. Ben Van Rompuy is a senior researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, where he heads the ASSER International Sports Law Centre, and is Visiting Professor of Competition Policy at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). He holds a Ph.D. in law from the VUB and held visiting scholar positions at Georgetown University and New York University.

Specific to this book:

• With contributions from leading academics in the field
• Presents comprehensive coverage of the aftermath of the Bosman ruling
• Offers fresh and different perspectives on the Bosman ruling

With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Carl Otto Lenz, Advocate General at the Court of Justice in the Bosman case.

An excerpt from a book review:

The case was not a radical call by the ECJ to deregulate professional football – a self-serving analysis still frequently expounded by the sport’s governing bodies at European (UEFA) and international levels (FIFA); rather, it was a recognition that the commercial evolution of football had placed its governance structures in the realm of private transnational regulation. The editors are thus of the view that in Bosman, the ECJ was merely highlighting that when actions of transnational private regulators interface with the demands of EU law, such regulatory undertakings, sporting or otherwise, are obliged to “justify and explain” the proportionality of their regulatory ambit.
Finally, Weatherill also reminisces on how Bosman changed the academic landscape surrounding EU sports law: Bosman, he argues, was the catalyst for a now thriving academic discipline, accompanied by a lively community of scholars. The vibrancy and depth of that scholarship is illustrated and epitomized by this collection and for that the editors and contributors are to be highly commended. For readers, it is a thorough, engaging and well-rounded account of both Bosman and, even more importantly, the contemporary, ever-evolving relationship between EU law and sport.
- Jack Anderson, 'Book Review: The Legacy of Bosman: Revisiting the Relationship between EU law and Sport, (2017) 54 Common Market Law Review, Issue 2, pp. 661–663

For the full review, see https://kluwerlawonline.com/JournalArticle/Common+Market+Law+Review/54.2/COLA2017047

This book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Ben Van Rompuy, Dr. Antoine Duval and Marco van der Harst LL.M.