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Overview of the System of Regulation of Football's International Transfer Market

Urheilu ja oikeus 2023 s. 14–37
2.4.2024
Asiantuntija-artikkeli

The system of regulation of international football can be considered highly particular in many respects. The international transfer market of football players, in turn, is an equally particular as well as economically significant phenomenon. Remarkably, the regulation of this phenomenon of significant scale is almost exclusively in the hands of a private law association based in Switzerland. FIFA has been able to create a system of transfers of football players that is applicable worldwide. This feat has been accomplished without the direct support of nation states. There is no international treaty binding nation states to respect the existence of a transfer market of football players. On the contrary, the transfer market is entirely based on the rules and regulations of a Swiss association. What is more, a review of the regulations of FIFA also reveals that the rules do not explicitly provide for the creation of a transfer market. No rule of FIFA states that a club is entitled to a transfer fee for players or dictates the conditions under which a transfer fee may be requested.

The present article will review the international transfer market of football players and describe both the practical as well as regulatory origins of the phenomenon. The first question to be answered is therefore how FIFA has managed to create the transfer market without the support of nation states. The second question is which are the rules that create the transfer market and how does FIFA manage to implement them in order to create the global transfer market.

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