Football Takes on Globalization

From advertisers to spectators，soccer embodies globalization like no other sport，and for players，soccer embodies globalization like no other profession.

Themarket for professional football players is，by far，themost globalized labormarket.A Nigerian or Brazilian football player can get a job more easily in Europe or Japan than a skilled surgeon or engineer.The greatest push to freemovement of labor in football came in 1995 after the so-called Bosman ruling7.Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman complained to the European Court of Justice against rules that then limited the number of foreign players to two or three per club.Bosman argued and won.The ruling lifted limits on EU8 players，and soon other limits on African，East European or Latin American playerswere formally abandoned ormade irrelevant.Today，many of the best clubs have no players at all from their“own”countries.The Inter Milan9 squad had no Italian starters only a few weeks ago when winning Europe'smost prestigious competition，the Champions League.

But also，globalmobility of labor combined with a capitalist system，in which the richest clubs can buy the best playerswithout salary caps or other limits，concentrates quality more than ever before.A handful of richest teams buy the best players and collect themost trophies，thus boosting their popularity，developing an international fan base，selling more jerseys and advertisements，adding to their coffers and，in turn，buying better players.At the club level，globalization combined with commercialization thus produces two outcomes：better quality of the game，which is tantamount，in economics，to greater output；and greater concentration ofwinning clubs，which is tantamount to greater inequality.

Generally，the World Cup is a great example of what globalization is.During the opening ceremony of the World Cup，when stadiums are packed and each country's flag is being represented，when someone from Japan can be sitting next to someone from Brazil，from Spain or from South Africa，when everyone in the stadium feels a sense of oneness and that they are truly global citizens whose country borders are practically erased.In a sense，football becomesmore of a culture than simply a sport.