Bosman ruling

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Bosman ruling
European Court of Justice
Submitted 6 October 1993 Decided 15 December 1995
Full case name	Union royale belge des sociétés de football association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman, Royal club liégeois SA v Jean-Marc Bosman and others and Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA) v Jean-Marc Bosman
Case	C-415/93
CelexID	61993CJ0415
ECLI	ECLI:EU:C:1995:463
Case type	Reference for a preliminary ruling
Chamber	Full chamber
Nationality of parties	Belgium
Procedural history	Cour d'appel de Liège, 9e chambre civile, arrêt du 1 October 1993 (29.426/92)
Court composition
Judge-Rapporteur G. Federico Mancini
President Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias
Advocate General Carl Otto Lenz
Legislation affecting
Interprets Article 48, TEEC

Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling)^[1] is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of association, and direct effect of article 39^[2] (now article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) of the Treaty of Rome.

The case was an important decision on the free movement of labour and had a profound effect on the transfers of footballers—and by extension players of other professional sports—within the European Union (EU).

The decision banned restrictions on foreign EU players within national leagues and allowed players in the EU to move to another club at the end of a contract without a transfer fee being paid.

The ruling was made in a consolidation of three separate legal cases, all involving Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman:

• Belgian Football Association v Jean-Marc Bosman
• R.F.C. de Liège v Jean-Marc Bosman and others
• UEFA v Jean-Marc Bosman