The Practice of Internationalization of Football Players - Dissertation Example

INTRODUCTION The recent wave of rapid technological advancements has brought transformational changes and new trends in every field and aspect of human activities and businesses. With no exception, the sports sector also witnesses some major changes due to the advent of modern means of communication that provides several new options to the players, sponsors and organizers (Magee and Sugden, 2000, p 421). Globalization has bestowed the phenomenon of internationalization to many sports and at present it has become a very common practice to hire foreign players in major national leagues. This global migration of the players usually costs very high fee to the organizers however, the foreign players are fervently hired in the teams with the expectation of fostering the trend of team victories (Massarella, 2000, p62). The proposed research study aims to examine the factors that lead the management of the sports team towards hiring international players in their team in exchange of high fees. The paper proposes a research study presenting the case study of English premier League with respect to the mounting drift towards the hiring of foreign players. The case study would be developed using data and information from secondary documents including research papers, news resources, sports journals and books. Moreover, the primary resources including the interviews of some officials associated with EPL would also be conducted to find out their views and opinions regarding the decision to hire international players in EPL in exchange for high fees. The interviews would be conducted via email and attempt would be made to contact any former or present member of the management team of the soccer leagues. The proposed research study intends to examine the issue focusing specifically upon the English Premier League as it has been found from the analysis of the premier hiring records that the conception of internationalization of players is deeply embedded in the British soccer league and for many years, the foreign players are frequently hired in the teams and as the time passes, the ratio of international players is increasing in the EPL players. The proposed research study aims to investigate the evolution of the practice of hiring foreign players in the team and describes the conceptions and theories associated with this trend. The research study aims to illustrate the implication of the described literature and theories in to the English premier league’s traditions of inviting foreign players in the team and their performances after becoming part of EPL. It is also revealed that the foreign players are commonly hired in the team against high fees because they are expected to gear up the performance level of the team carrying it towards the victory stand. Thus, the economic aspect of the management decision to hire foreign players is also an important point of focus for this research study that would be covered by discussing the amount spent by the English soccer team on the foreign players. PROBLEM DEFINITION The practice of internationalization of football players has become very common in most of the western countries and along with England, some other countries like Spain, Germany and France also use to hire the services of the players from other countries. It is found that during 1999-2000 season of football in Italy, there were 33 percent of the series-A players that belong to foreign countries. Similarly, the teams of Spain and Germany also comprised of almost 40 percent of foreign players during the season of 1999-2000, whereas in France, the ratio of foreign players reached the level of 23 percent. It shows that the trend of international players hiring in the national teams has become a common practice for many of the European teams where the numbers of foreign players are considerable increasing in the national teams (Massarella, 2000, p62) The idea of hiring foreign players within the professional leagues in not very new, however; last decade has witnessed great momentum in the trend of internationalization of players. The European professional leagues now commonly engage the players from other countries whom they think could significantly contribute towards the team victories. This thinking supports cross border movements of players and ultimately led towards the globalization of football game (Sepp, 2002, p77). The increased trend of foreign players’ induction in the British soccer league is also fuelled by the commercial interest that has swapped this popular sport into a football business. English premier league specially appears to be most welcoming destination for the global sports migrants due to the increased level of commercial investment, the number of non-English players is considerably increasing in EPL. The league has become the career map for many of the global football luminaries that actually do not belong to England but gained success and fame through the platform of EPL. The foreign players are convinced to join English premier league in exchange for attractive incentives and salaries (Bale and Maguire, 1994, p21). At present there is an average of 17 foreign players being hired in the 20 clubs of English premier league. These players have an important role in the victories of the team. For instance, in May 2008, the final of Championship League was played between Manchester United and Chelsea club in Moscow and out of 22 players, 12 were foreign players. The celebrity star of Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese player. Many other football stars playing for different clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea belong to non European countries and these clubs succeed to reach to the final rounds of the championships taking support of quality performance of these foreign players (Sapp, p77). The impressive performance of Arsenal in the recent session is also claimed as result of the club’s strategy to import high performing players to play on their behalf. These four English clubs are among the ten richest clubs of the world and the hiring of the foreign players in these clubs indicate high amount of financial rewards to the players. Manchester City for instance paid £7 million to hire the Croatian defender Vedran Corluka. Chelsea on the other hand pays £135,000 a week to central defender John Terry and £70,000 a week to another foreign player Lucas Neill. There are many other foreign players that are being paid extremely high by the English clubs in exchange for their valuable service and these players also prove their worth by gearing up the performance level of the team that hired them (Sapp, p77). The following table shows the ratio English and foreign players hired by the 20 clubs of English premier league. The tables show that there is considerable increase in the number of foreign players hired by these clubs from 1989-90 to 2009-10 Club Name Composition of players ARSENAL 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: Four players born in UK, 23 born abroad ASTON VILLA 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, three born abroad 2009-10: 18 players born in UK, 12 born abroad BIRMINGHAM CITY 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: 18 players born in UK, nine born abroad BLACKBURN ROVERS 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Seven players born in UK, 18 born abroad BOLTON WANDERERS 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 13 players born in UK, 12 born abroad BURNLEY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: 16 players born in UK, seven born abroad CHELSEA 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: Six players born in UK, 17 born abroad EVERTON 1989-90: 16 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: 12 players born in UK, 10 born abroad FULHAM 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Eight players born in UK, 16 born abroad HULL CITY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, three born abroad 2009-10: 14 players born in UK, 11 born abroad LIVERPOOL 1989-90: 18 players born in UK, five born abroad 2009-10: Four players born in UK, 20 born abroad MANCHESTER CITY 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: Seven players born in UK, 16 born abroad PORTSMOUTH 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: Nine players born in UK, 15 born abroad STOKE CITY 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 16 players born in UK, eight born abroad SUNDERLAND 1989-90: 21 players born in UK, one born abroad 2009-10: 14 players born in UK, 12 born abroad TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1989-90: 22 players born in UK, four born abroad 2009-10: 13 players born in UK, 12 born abroad WEST HAM UNITED 1989-90: 20 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: 12 players born in UK, nine born abroad WIGAN ATHLETIC 1989-90: 19 players born in UK, none born abroad 2009-10: Nine players born in UK, 14 born abroad WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1989-90: 18 players born in UK, two born abroad 2009-10: 20 players born in UK, eight born abroad (Data Source: BBC Sports) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The proposed research study aims to investigate the effectiveness of increasing trend of hiring international players in the sports teams specifically focusing upon the English Premier League. In this regard, the proposed study aims to attain following core objectives To identify the factors behind increasing trends of hiring international players in the sports teams To identify the core benefits and disadvantages of hiring international players in the sports team To highlight the difference in the fee and expenses of hiring international players as compared with the domestic players To examine the effectiveness of decision of management to hire international players in their teams RESEARCH QUESTIONS The proposed research study aims seem to answer of following research questions What factors insists the management of the sports team to hire international players in the teams? What benefits the sports teams enjoy due to the inclusion of international players? What is the role generally played by the international players in the victory of the sports teams? BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW Bale and Maguire (1994, p21) published a series of articles on the issue of sports labor migration as an attempt to position the issue as an academic subject. The global migration of players has been witnessed in different sports like basketball, ice hockey and rugby etc; however, it is found that historically football is the major sports where the labor migration is experienced very commonly and consistently. In 1997, David Conn (p96) proposes the term “football business” to refer to the increasing trend of hiring international players in soccer team with the intention to gain commercial revenues. He reveals that football has got the essence of commercialization mainly due to subsequent high levels of economic rewards being offered to the winners of the soccer leagues. The possibilities of getting high economic rewards force the organizers of teams to look towards ways of assuring their team success. In this scenario hiring the services of competent foreign players appears to be an important and fruitful way of assuring this victory (Hayward, 1999, p3). Magee and Sudgen (2000, p422) identify some of the important factors that support the internationalization of football players. The researchers reveal that the introduction of freedom of contracts and end of the foreign player quota system from the European countries is an important factor that fostered the trend of hiring as much as desired number of foreign players in the national team. The players are also hired from other countries to create media hype for the team that also confers ample revenues to the organizers and management from the sponsors and media groups. Many English clubs adopt the strategy of hiring foreign players to play at the position of left side where the English footballers usually failed to perform at international standards. However, it was not accepted as valid justification for hiring foreign players and the sports experts widely insist upon proper training mentoring of the national players to play with quality technical skills at all the positions (Conn, 1997, p93). The critics of global migration of footballers argue that the national players lack encouragement and training due to the attitude of the management giving preference to the foreign players. It is widely believed that there must be some restrictions enact to limit the numbers of the foreign players in EPL. In order to understand the current state of foreign players hiring in EPL, it is imperative to have an insight over the primitive account of information that basically evolved the entire situation. The history of football in England shows the signs of customary disputes over the issues of the wages of the players. The professional football evolved in England mainly due to the popularity of the game amongst the working class of northern and midland areas in late 1800s. The revenues collected through the professional leagues were distributed among the players as the remuneration against their services. As the time passes, the issue of remuneration and the amount being given to be players became an important part of the game and the player as well as organizers start giving considerable important to the economic benefits gained from the game. Soon the managements of the sports team started preferring the international players over the domestic players because they see several benefits of including foreign players in the teams (Walvin, 1975, p76). Traditionally, the players used to sign 1-year contract with the football league for agreed amount of maximum wages and the players has no right to switch over to another league during the tenure. This standard procedure was strongly challenged in 1960s by Professional Footballers Association and its then Chairman Jimmy Hill. As a result, the retain-and-transfer system and maximum wages were perished and the players were given the freedom to free move from one club or country to another. Later an independent tribunal system was created in 1978 that directed to allocate an arbitrary fee to retain the players. The players also started legal proceedings to advocate their rights and in 1990, the Belgium Court allowed the players to move freely across the borders to continue their sports career in other countries. The European court of Justice after long procedure of hearings and appeals further elaborated the decision and it was finally declared that after the termination of their current contract, the players are legally free to join any other country’s professional league (Magee and Sugden, 2000, p 421). The decision of the court became the turning point for many sporting events and since then it has become a very common practice for the players to move cross borders freely. The freedom also increased the bargaining power of the top players and most of the times; the key players decide to move from one league to another on the basis of relative higher economic benefits. The clubs on the other hands also became open towards offering high incentives to the players in order to retain the top stars. This situation leads towards the internationalization of football in Europe that has gained further momentum in the era of globalization (Massarella, 2000, p62). The two-legged affair is an important issue rooted from the practice of hiring foreign players in the English premier team. Magee and Sudgen (2000, p423) explains two legged affair and deem it as a disquieting aspect of football internationalization. The researchers reveal the absence of competent left sided English player compels the selectors to recruit foreign players. For instance, in 1999-2000 sessions Jamie Redknapp was hired in EPL to perform left side duties of the midfield because no English player was available to play at this position with international standards. This example advocates the trend of hiring foreign players in the team and supports the concept that the unavailability of any specialist player could lead to team weakness so it is better to fill the position with any competent player belonging to some other country. What about management decisions? RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The proposed research study is intended to be conducted employing a qualitative research approach. The qualitative research could be of several types. Berg (1989, p65) explains that there are many ways of conducting a qualitative research including “case study, literature review, natural experiment, participant observation, interviews based, and secondary analysis of data or combination of these.” Keeping in view the aims and objectives of the study, it is decided to select case study as the research methods. It was decided to conduct a case study because case study is a significant tool that helps in gaining understanding of a complex issue or object. The proposed research study is also intended to understand the leading factors behind the hiring of international players in the sports teams by gaining deep understanding of the factors that influence the decision making of the EPL management regarding the selection of players thus; the case study seems an appropriate method to deal with the decided issue. This method is commonly used by the social scientist for many years to analyze “contemporary real-life situations”. Yin (1984, p154) explains that case study is an empirical study that aims at investigating any contemporary phenomenon in its real life style context (Yin, 1984, p23). For arguments indicated above, the Case Study was found to be most relevant and useful for conducting this dissertation as it enables a deep analysis of the issues. The data gathering is basically classified in two main categories including “Primary Data and Secondary Data”. For this dissertation the basic sources of information are “Secondary Documents and interviews” interviews would be conducted based on the accessibility, availability, and willingness of the professionals to participate in the study. Yin (1994, p76) described that interviews are most vital source for case study information. The secondary data would be collected through different secondary sources like documents, news paper achieves, and books, sports magazines and web based informative portals. The information accessed from these sources would be complied and analyzed using the thematic analytical framework so that the leader factors behind the internationalization of players and the outcomes of such decisions could be identified. References Bale, J. and Maguire, J. (Eds.) (1994), the global sports arena: Athletic talent migration in an interdependent world. London: Frank Cass. BBC Sports (2009), where the Premier League's players come from, retrieved online from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8182090.stm Berg, B. (1989), Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, third edition Allyn and Bacon, Boston Conn, D. (1997).The football business: Fair game in the ‘90s? Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Mainstream. Hayward, P. (1999b, November 27).Great hair, pity about parting of ways over foreigners, The Daily Telegraph, p.S3 Jonathan Magee and John Sugden (2002),"The World at their Feet": Professional Football and International Labour Migration, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Volume 26, No.4, November 2002, pp.421-437, Sage Publications Massarella, L. (2000, February).Foreign disgrace, Four Four Two, pp.62-65 Sepp, B. (2002), we won, so let's make it worse. Economist; 5/24/2008, Vol. 387 Issue 8581, p77-77, 1/2p Walvin, J. (1975).The people’s game London: Penguin Yin, R. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods (1st Ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishing. Read More