Filip KOVARIK, Palacký University Olomouc, Czechia
Sport in any form belongs to the lives of most people around the world. The most common sport in the world is football. The reason is its attractiveness but also the low cost of its operation. For some it is a leisure activity and for others a full-fledged job. Although football has its ancestors since ancient times, its hard-coded version is not found until the middle of the 19th century in England. During this period, it gained in popularity, which led to the gradual introduction of the first football association, the first regular competition and also the legalization of professionalism. Together with the introduction of professionalism, we are reaching the first documented international labour migration in the world of football.
In recent years, special attention has been paid to work-related migration as part of the study of population migration. These include the migration of professional footballers. Competitions in Europe (especially in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France) excel at the football level, including the financial evaluation of players. Already in the period before World War II, the strongest migratory flow of South American footballers to Europe was recorded. It is still important for Europe today, but the migration of footballers from Africa is becoming increasingly important.
The article also deals with the intra-European migration of nominated players at the recently concluded European Football Championship. It examines their work in the European leagues in the 2020/2021 season, and compares the results with the 2015/2016 league season and EURO 2016 participants. The author confirms that the process of globalization of the labor market in Europe, reflected in the growth of foreign workers in individual countries in the highest league national football competitions. There are even leagues in which there are more foreign players than domestic ones.
Mots clés : football|labour migration|professionalism|UEFA
A103966FK