For years, ‘player power’ was a frequently used term within the football world, describing the ability of an individual player to force his club into letting him move regardless of a contract situation, or whether they wanted him to leave. ‘No one is bigger than the club’ came the cry – but that was very rarely true. The Bosman ruling allowed players to move for free when their contract came to an end, meaning clubs potentially losing out first on millions of pounds, then tens of millions, and now perhaps hundreds of millions in transfer fees. Players were given inflated wages to persuade them to stay, with clubs knowing that increasing a weekly wage – for example, from...
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