Football Clubs and the Global Transfer Market

This is the first book to examine labour markets in professional football from the perspective of football clubs rather than players.

Drawing on data from the eight biggest European football leagues - the hub of the global player transfer market - the book explores how and why clubs scout the market for new players, why they let players go, and how they use their academies to identify and develop young talent. Arguing that clubs aren’t fully rational actors when it comes to player transfers and talent development, it demonstrates that clubs’ talent policy is most often a bet on high player turnover alongside local recruitment. It shows that most transfers take place domestically between clubs within country borders, using sociological analysis to explore the investment of clubs in domestic labour markets, and offers new insight into the internal operation of clubs in the way that they manage their first team squads and youth academies, and how this often creates conditions of anxiety and insecurity that isn’t in the best interests of clubs or players.

International in scope, and shining new light on sports labour markets and organisational behaviour in sport, this book is fascinating reading for any advanced student, researcher, policy-maker or practitioner with an interest in sport business and management, talent identification and development, or international business or human resource management.

Thijs Velema is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at National Taipei University in Taiwan, with expertise in organizational sociology and sport sociology. His research focuses on the labour market in professional football, including the career developments of players and the activities of clubs. He is also a board member of the Taiwan Sociology of Sport Society (TSSS).