Jean-Marc Bosman - the forgotten man of football

Joe Cole's proposed transfer to Liverpool on a free transfer(or a Bosman free as they are more commonly known)will be one of the most high profile of such transfers this summer. The 56 capped England international, released by Chelsea following a seven year spell at Stamford Bridge which featured three league titles, two FA Cup's and a Champions League final appearance, Cole is on the brink of signing a four year contract at Anfield.
This coup from new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson represents a cracking piece of business, and shows the intent of the club following a desperately disappointing season which saw the club finish seventh and exit at the group phase of the Champions League, this move will go a long way to reassure Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at Anfield next season. Moreover, having sold the 30-year-old Yossi Benayoun for £6 million, and replaced him with the arguably more talented Cole for nothing, who is two years his junior, is a financially sound move.
But the main purpose of this blog is to delve deeper into the life of the free agents, of which there are hundreds and thousands every summer transfer window. Not all of them will find it easy to get a new club, like Cole's former teammate, Germany captain Michael Ballack, did this summer (the midfield player rejoined former club Bayer Leverkusen.
But how did the Bosman ruling come into effect, and how does it benefit the clubs and the players? The ruling is named, perhaps not surprisingly, after Jean-Marc Bosman, the forgotten man of football. His case goes back 20 years, to the summer of 1990. He would best be described as a journeyman midfield player, and after his contract expired at Belgian Juliper League club RFC Liege. Bosman wanted to move to French club Dunkerque to get more first team football, but Dunkerque didn't offer enough of a transfer fee to Liege, so the Belgian club rejected the offer. This left Bosman in limbo to a certain degree - his wages were reduced as he was no longer a first team player, and he contested his club's decision in the courts. His case - he sued for restraint of trade in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He took on the Belgian Football Association, RFC Liege and UEFA, and won on all counts.
Even though Bosman won, making it possible for free agents to move to any club when their contract expired, all the legal ramifications (which didn't finish until December 1995) meant Bosman's career was as good as ended. Today, he is broke and bitter about the whole incident. For all he has done for football, it is easily forgotten the troubles he went to for the ruling to pass through the courts.
Since the Bosman ruling was passed, UEFA have implemented a series of policies to try and counteract the effects. For example, there was a restriction on the number of foreign players in squads for European club competitions (no more than three) to try and prevent foreign players letting their contracts run down, and joining any club for no transfer fee. Five years ago, all of the 52 UEFA federations voted unanimously to increase the number of locally trained players, and therefore increase the number of locally trained players who must be included in each matchday sqaud, theoretically decreasing player movement between clubs.
And that brings us up to the modern day. Every summer, there is a huge list of players who are available for free transfers, which clubs all over the world can trawl through. All players released by British clubs, from Cole and Ballack right through to Danny Adams and Chris Adamson (who are top of the list on the Professional Footballers Association's ingeniously named website www.givemefootball.com) are there to view.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for the PFAs extraordinarily well-paid Chief Executive Gordon Taylor, but he is adept at finding clubs for many of his 'clients,' as all professional footballer's are. Although not all out-of-contract footballers find it as easy as Cole and Ballack to find a new club, it is undoubtedly true that the players are in a stronger position due to Bosman. High profile examples of players letting their contracts run down include Steve McManaman, who let his contract expire and secured a lucrative deal at Real Madrid in 1999. His former teammate Michael Owen intended to pull off a similar trick in 2004, but with a year left on his contract, the then-nee Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez allowed him to leave for a vastly reduced sum of £8m, far below his market value.
This is the key point from the ruling - players are in a much stronger position to either negotiate an improved contract or find a new club. This is more true at the pinnacle of the game rather than in the lower leagues, where the majority of players are given short contracts and find their way onto givemefootball.com. Just scrolling down the As on the list, you find former Premiership players Ade Akinbiyi, Fabio Aurelio and Jeremie Aliadiere. Each player has statistics next to their name and profile picture, such as age, weight, height and nationality, and one click can transfer you to a detailed breakdown of their career history. Almost like Championship manager, (or Facebook for footballers!)
If you like what you see, you can make a bid. It's likely that many players will be giving trials, pay-as-you-play deals, or month-to-month contracts (akin to loan deals but with no club to return to). Such is the lot of the modern day footballer - all you tend to hear about is the amount of money wasted by the top players which the tabloids and gossip magazines report.
Bosman has definitely given the power to the players (even though he has been unable to reap the benefits himself), in a similar way Jimmy Hill did when the maximum wage for players was abolished. But there is an illusion that all footballers' are living a life of luxury. Not many players will have Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal chasing after them as Cole has, with a lucrative contract waiting at the end. Many will not know when there next contract is coming from, with families to feed and mortgages to pay. Some younger players will drop out of the game, with no clue as to what their next move will be. But without Bosman, they might be stuck at a club where they are not playing and have no way of rectifying the situation. And after all, as nice as the money is, what do players like to do more than anything - play football.