The new edition shows the increasing internationalization of the ‘big five’ European leagues

The Professional Football Players Observatory, born out of a partnership between the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) and the University of Franche-Comté (France), has the pleasure to announce the publication of the third edition of the “Annual Review of the European Football Players’ Labour Market”. It reveals that the percentage of foreign players with clubs in the top flight of each of the five main European leagues (Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy) continues to increase.

Our study shows that foreign players made up 42.4% of all players employed by English, Spanish, Italian, German and French clubs during the 2007-08 season. This represents a 3.5% increase over the previous season. The figure reached 59.5% in the English Premier League, 52.6% among the top five clubs in each league and 50.5% among strikers. For the first time, foreign players scored more than half of the total number of goals (51.9%). More information is to be found in the attached files.

The number of Latin Americans among the foreign players rose by 2% against players from other parts of the world. Non-European players now represent 50% of the total number of foreign players. This percentage was only around 30% before the introduction of freedom of movement in European football. By far the greatest number of foreign players came from Brazil, which exported 158 players. Their contingent has increased by 12.9% compared to the previous season (+18 players).

The publication from the Professional Football Players Observatory also shows that the percentage of locally trained players on clubs’ books continues to decrease while player’s mobility is steadily increasing.

In view of these figures, the FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has highlighted “the need to have solidarity and maintain a balance in football”. The head of world football’s governing body is convinced that “the introduction of 6+5 will redress the balance in sporting terms”. Blatter’s proposal has the backing of many associations: “I can guarantee that continents like South America and Africa are behind us on this, as they are the main suppliers for big European clubs and they are suffering from the exodus of their players.”

The “Annual Review of the European Football Players’ Labour Market” can be ordered at www.cies.ch under “Publications”. Journalists, students and universities can take advantage of a special discount price (50 euros including postage costs) by writing to eurofootplayers@unine.ch

For further information, please contact:

International Center for Sports Studies
Raffaele Poli, Annual Review co-author
raffaele.poli@unine.ch