Historical analysis of football contracts Essay

Historical analysis of football contracts - Essay Example The relationship between players and clubs changed fundamentally through the years. Contemporary football is caught between two very powerful concepts: the freedom of movement of players on the one side and contractual stability on the other. The international governing body FIFA attempts to provide a universal guideline on how to deal with contractual stability and international mobility. A it was shown in this research project, freedom of movement is the consequence of many social, cultural and, not at last, political developments which have caused an increase in international mobility of players in the recent past. The focus of this article centered on playing contract conditions, analysis of power determinants in the football labor market. The football labor market, as this paper will demonstrate, is a site for power contestation between football authorities and players and the ‘transformation of circumstances’ with regard to playing contract conditions throughout the history of the game is central to this paper. The paper uses agency-structure as a framework and consequently adopts the view that football players perform their labor in an occupational workplace that is governed by football’s authorities (that is, the game’s rules, governing bodies, regulating authorities and clubs). In this sense, the players are considered to be the individual agents (agency)while the football authorities are the structure whilst the power battle between the players and authorities – as part of agency-structure – regarding playing contract conditions over time is the f ocal point of this paper.