Anna-Maija Naakka Foreign Players in the Finnish Football League 1970–2010
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Anna-Maija Naakka Foreign players in the Finnish football league 1970–2010 University of Jyväskylä Department of Sport Sciences Social Sciences of Sport Spring 2014 2 UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ Department of Sport Sciences/Faculty of Sport and Health sciences NAAKKA ANNA-MAIJA Foreign players in the Finnish football league 1970–2010 ABSTRACT Master’s thesis 88 pages, 6 appendix pages Social Sciences of Sport 2014 Sport is one of the most visible parts of globalisation in the contemporary world. Football, being the most popular sport in the world, is linked to the concept of globalisation in many ways. The movement of workers, in this case football migration, is one of the aspects that have turned football into a truly global sport. This study investigates the phenomenon of athlete and football migration and its roots, development and contemporary state in Finland. The first part of this study discusses the phenomenon of globalisation of sport and sport migration as a whole. This information enables the reflection between the situation in Finland and in the global scene. The main purpose of the study is to find the defining features of the development of football migration in Finland. This study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative data collection, methods and analysis. The quantitative data was collected during 2010 and 2011 and later modified to respond to the purpose of the study. The qualitative data, theme interviews (n=3) with three former foreign players were collected in the autumn 2010 and spring 2011. The quantitative data was analysed mainly by using statistics methods and the qualitative data with a thematic content analysis. In 1970 there was one foreign player in the highest level of Finnish football system, the Finnish league. 40 years later the amount was almost 80 players. Compared to the European big leagues the amount is small, but reveals features about the Finnish football scene and the society. The amount of foreigners has increased during 40 years and the countries of origin have changed between decades. Different political, cultural and economic reasons have had the impact on football migratory routes to Finland. In the 1970s and 1980s Finland attracted British footballers that spent summer seasons in Finland and went back to their home country for their main season. In the 1990s the collapse of the Soviet Union brought Russians and Eastern Europeans, and the spreading of the South-American players could be seen in the Finnish league, as well. In the 2000s Finland, with the rest of the football world, faced the new flood of African players. In 2000s, however, the proportional share of footballers from different areas became more even, which shows the true global nature of football in our time. Finland is still a football periphery and not seen attractive in terms of level of the game or the wages. However, Finland is able to compete with good facilities, stable conditions and secured paycheque. Our country does not attract players from wealthier leagues, but for Eastern Europeans, South Americans and Africans it has provided and keeps providing new opportunities in football. Keywords: Football – Player Migration – Sport globalisation – The Finnish league 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My journey with the master’s thesis was not the easiest one and there were many times I doubted if I would ever finish my thesis. Different working responsibilities caused this thesis to delay a couple of years but now, when looking at the finished work, I am proud of myself of finally completing it. I want to acknowledge my supervisor of master’s thesis, Dr. Hanna Vehmas. Even though there were months between us getting in contact and several failed attempts to get my thesis done, she was always supporting and willing to help. Without her knowledge and helpful comments this study would have never been completed. The programme of Sport science and management gave me basic knowledge of the contemporary sports world and the courses provided a good basis, which I could build up my thesis on. Therefore I would like to thank the teachers and staff members of the Department of Sport Sciences for sharing their knowledge and expertise. I would also like to thank my fellow student, good friend and football enthusiast Peter Schneider for correcting grammatical errors, pointing out the crossovers between British and American English and giving valuable suggestions to improve my thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to John Allen, Valeri Popovitsh and Diego Corpache for giving me their time, answering all my questions and more and for the great chance to learn about football and phenomena related to it. These true gentlemen have contributed to the Finnish game greatly and their knowledge as well as other former players’ should definitely be used in football related studies in the future. I would also like to show my appreciation to my parents, who have always been supportive, first when I changed my journalism studies to sport studies and later when I was struggling with my thesis. They never put any pressure on me, gave negative comments or doubted, but always encouraged and believed in me. Last but not least, thank you for all my great friends for the words of encouragement and being genuinely interested in my thesis even when I was not. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EC European Commission ECC European Consumer Centre ECJ European Court of Justice EU European Union FA The English Football Association FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association IAAF International Association of Athletics Federations IOC International Olympic Committee UEFA The Union of European Football Associations 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................... 4 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 6 2 GLOBALISATION AND FOOTBALL ................................................................... 11 2.1 Globalisation of sport .......................................................................................... 11 2.2 Football as a global sport .................................................................................... 12 2.3 Labour migration ................................................................................................ 15 2.4 Football players as global workforce ................................................................. 16 2.5 Bosman ruling and the transfer rules ................................................................ 20 2.5.1 Prior to Bosman .............................................................................................. 20 2.5.2 The Bosman ruling ......................................................................................... 21 2.5.3 6+5 rule .......................................................................................................... 24 2.5.4 Home grown player rule ................................................................................. 24 2.5.5 National rules ................................................................................................. 25 3 FINNISH FOOTBALL .............................................................................................. 27 3.1 The beginning of Finnish football ...................................................................... 27 3.2 Losing the position .............................................................................................. 29 3.3 The early stage of player movement .................................................................. 30 4 RESEARCH TASK AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................ 32 4.1 Research task and questions .............................................................................. 32 4.2 Quantitative data analysis .................................................................................. 32 4.3 Qualitative data analysis ..................................................................................... 35 5 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ..................................................................................... 39 5.1 Overall results 1970–2010 ................................................................................... 39 5.1.1 The dominating countries ............................................................................... 41 5.1.2 Age of the players .......................................................................................... 43 5.1.3 Seasons played in Finland .............................................................................. 44 5.2 1970–1979 A few brave men ............................................................................... 45 5.3 1980–1989 The arrival of the Britons ................................................................ 48 5.4 1990–1999 The gates of the East open ............................................................... 52 5.4.1 The collapse of the Soviet Union ................................................................... 55 5.4.2 Hungarian and Polish footballers ................................................................... 56 5.4.3 South Americans ............................................................................................ 57 5.4.4 The impact of Bosman ................................................................................... 60