"Player quotas, national eligibility restrictions, and freedom of movement under EU law"

McArdle, David. (2003) "Player quotas, national eligibility restrictions, and freedom of movement under EU law". In: UNSPECIFIED, Nashville, TN. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

[T]he focus here is the question of whether national eligibility criteria-i.e., those regulations that govern who can be selected to play for a national side as opposed to a club side-are compatible with freedom of movement provisions. This paper locates that question within the context of the abolition of "quotas" pertaining to club sides. In various judgments both prior to and after Bosman, the ECJ has indicated that, were national eligibility criteria to be challenged, the Court would be minded to uphold them. But in this paper I contend that the legal basis upon which such a ruling would be made is far from watertight. The ECJ's intimations that national eligibility restrictions are matters of "purely sporting interest" and, as such, would be exempt from the rigors of EU are problematic. National eligibility criteria contain the "economic element" necessary to bring them within the purview of EU law in the wake of Bosman and other cases.

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