The impact of European integration on domestic sport: The case of German football

Since the mid-1990s EU institutions and EU policy-making outcomes have had a considerably more noticeable bearing on the regulation and subsequent development of sport than in the first four decades of European integration. While the developments at European level are relatively well documented, the actual impact of EU law and policy-making on the domestic arena has so far largely escaped thorough academic attention. This essay will give a brief overview of the increased attention that sport has received in EU politics and policy, before embarking on an analysis regarding the result this may have for domestic sport. Our empirical focus is on German football, particularly on three sub-cases: (I) the nationality issue related to the Bosman ruling, (II) the transfer rules resulting from Bosman, and (III) the issue of broadcasting rights. Our (comparative) empirical analysis suggests that domestic level actors can influence the impact of EU level decisions to (quite) some extent. Hence, outcomes depend both on the strength of EU level pressures for domestic change and on domestic level counter-reactions. We argue that the interplay of these levels has led to different outcomes: ‘system transformation’ (Case I), ‘heavy adjustment’ (Case II) and ‘partial adjustment’ (Case III).