"Taking the field: The EU and the governance of European football"

This paper examines the involvement of the EC in the governance of European football. The first part recounts the history of EC intervention focusing in particular on the 1995 semifinal "Bosman ruling" of the European Court of Justice, and the more recent agreement on transfer rules negotiated by the European Commission with various football organizations. The second part analyses EC involvement both in terms of its motives and methods and concludes that such an involvement, far from being atypical because taking place in the era of the so-called "retreat of the state," represents an instance of contemporary "governance.