Warwick professor explains England’s world cup woes

England’s lack of success in the World Cup is due to the shock in the mobility of highly skilled workers, according to Warwick economist Chrysovalantis Vasilakis.

Dr Vasilakis’s research has looked at data on European male football leagues to explore the effect of the reverse ‘brain drain’ and the Bosman rule on the England national teams.

Introduced in 1995, the Bosman ruling allowed out-of-contract players to move more easily to another club.

Dr Vasilakis found that the Bosman ruling eased the transfer of players and led to substantial increases in migration flows of football players between countries.

Focusing on the nine World Cup years from 1978 to 2010, Dr Vasilakis concluded that the effect of the mobility of talented workers or the so-called reverse ‘brain drain’ has created an inequality between footballing nations.

Dr Vasilakis said: “Football has been so far the most globalised labour market and an increasing number of talented players move every year across countries and continents to join the top European leagues.”

“This meant that players from a wider range of countries were given the opportunity to hone their skills in the top teams in the league. They could then take these skills back to their home teams for the World Cup.”

Dr Vasilakis found that this trend has led to more inequality in European leagues with all the best players going to a small group of clubs.

However this has had the opposite effect on certain national teams including England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Romania.

Countries that have benefitted from the Bosman include Greece, France, Portugal and Turkey.

Dr Vasilakis told the Boar: “Football is a sport that everyone can enjoy.  But in the last 30 years it has become a labour market, where millions are spent”.

While Dr Vasilakis admitted that economics alone cannot explain England’s World Cup woes, he believes that “economists can express their opinion not only as fans since money counts in the football market today.”

Dr Vasilakis’s paper, Globalized Market for Talents and Inequality: What Can Be Learnt From European Footbal, is available online.