Introduction

The previous chapter has examined the topic of footballers' remuneration. Chapter 8 discusses several other topics concerned with the economics of the professional footballers' labour market. Section 8.1 presents an analysis of patterns of migration, mobility and career development among English club football's regular workforce: the players employed by the ninety-two member-clubs of the Premier League and Football League. The coverage of the analysis extends from the mid-1980s to the late 2000s, a period during which the character of English football has been transformed by the arrival of a large contingent of overseas players. During this period there appears to have been a shift in the overall burden of responsibility for the development of young players away from the smaller English clubs towards their larger counterparts; and some sharp regional disparities have emerged in the prospects for locally born youngsters to become professional footballers.

Patterns of migration by footballers across national borders reflect a wide range of influences, which are reviewed in Section 8.2. An analysis of the employment profile (by country of employment in club football) is presented for the international footballers who participated in the Finals of the 2000 and 2008 European Championships. Despite the England national team having failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 Finals, the English league was the largest single host-country provider of footballers in these Finals, reflecting England's recent ascendancy within Europe as an importer of top-level footballers.

Section 8.3 reviews empirical evidence on racial discrimination in English football and elsewhere.