Any Political Scientists Out There?

[theworm2345]

I have a 10-page research paper I have to write for a class on the EU (and in my case there has to be a focus on Ireland). Essentially, the point of the paper is to examine one of the 27 (I think 27) Policy Areas of the EU, focus on one of their directives, and then apply it to an Irish case. I'm not particularly worried getting it done, but if possible I would like to do it on something interesting. The first thing that sprang to mind was doing it on the whole Daniel Kearns/CAS issue, but I don't think that would fall under the scope of this project.

The main one I thought would interest me would be this (http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/sport/l35002_en.htm) one, and perhaps do the Bosman Ruling or the Lisbon Treaty's effect on Irish football. I will pitch this to the teacher, but unfortunately much of the research has to be done on scholarly journals and I doubt there is too much on this concerning Irish football. Plus, I'm not sure how much of an effect this has had, as we're still not seeing many Irish players move to different countries in the EU, plus even with the Lisbon Treaty, many of the Irish players still fall under the "home-grown" rule so they aren't always affected by the exclusionary squad rules in the way other countries are.

So, basically, I was hoping those of you knowledgeable about politics and the EU and its Policies could suggest another possibly interesting field to research for the paper...I'm open to pretty much anything as long as there might be some decent scholarly articles on it. I'm sure there will be suggestions about the whole debt crisis, but I'd rather not do that as it is very broad and I don't know a thing about economics.

Thanks.

P.S. Before any of you can make a joke, yes, I already thought of doing the aforementioned directive's effect on David Connolly's career (such as his transfer to Feyenoord via the Bosman ruling)...but I don't think it will fly.

[ForzaForth]

TheWorm

There would be plenty of academic material on the Bosman ruling if you wanted to tackle that. If you search for "Stephen Weatherill, University of Oxford" you'll find one of the foremost authorities on EU sports law and a number of his sources.

In the case of Ireland, you could also try Cox and Schuster, Sport and the Law, (available on Amazon) which I think was published in 2007.

A number of other sports cases followed Bosman at the Court of Justice. If you're interested, send me a message and I'll do up a list for you.

[theworm2345]

TheWorm

There would be plenty of academic material on the Bosman ruling if you wanted to tackle that. If you search for "Stephen Weatherill, University of Oxford" you'll find one of the foremost authorities on EU sports law and a number of his sources.

In the case of Ireland, you could also try Cox and Schuster, Sport and the Law, (available on Amazon) which I think was published in 2007.

A number of other sports cases followed Bosman at the Court of Justice. If you're interested, send me a message and I'll do up a list for you.
Thanks much for your response, I may take you up on your offer for those cases if the topic gets approved.

Regarding the academic material on the Bosman ruling, do you know if there would be much pertaining to the League of Ireland or Irish players? Or just mostly general information on it across Europe? I will look as well at Sport and Law...could you give an example of something it might focus on? And for both, would the focus be current (or at least last couple of years)?

Thanks again.

[ForzaForth]

I would guess that virtually all the academic material on Bosman would focus on its EU-wide implications as the effect of the ruling would be virtually the same for all EU Member States. The relatively low level of commercial activity represented by Irish domestic football would also militate against specific comments on the Irish situation, I believe. If you're interested, put "Bosman" into the research page of the EU Court of Justice library to see the amount of material available.

To focus this topic on the Irish situation, you could analyse the implications of Bosman for part-time footballers such as those commonly involved in Irish domestic football.

As far as timelines are concerned, as the Bosman ruling was in late-1995, any academic material is going to be fairly current, in any event.

Let me know if I can be of any more help. If your deadline permits, I could search to see if I have material on Bosman here at home.

[theworm2345]

I would guess that virtually all the academic material on Bosman would focus on its EU-wide implications as the effect of the ruling would be virtually the same for all EU Member States. The relatively low level of commercial activity represented by Irish domestic football would also militate against specific comments on the Irish situation, I believe. If you're interested, put "Bosman" into the research page of the EU Court of Justice library to see the amount of material available.

To focus this topic on the Irish situation, you could analyse the implications of Bosman for part-time footballers such as those commonly involved in Irish domestic football.

As far as timelines are concerned, as the Bosman ruling was in late-1995, any academic material is going to be fairly current, in any event.

Let me know if I can be of any more help. If your deadline permits, I could search to see if I have material on Bosman here at home.
Thanks for this as well, I've done some searches for articles on the Bosman ruling and there are a few, even some relatively new ones. Stuttgart88 has sent me some stuff as well that should be quite useful. Perhaps what I'll do is analyze it on both fronts, domestic and Irish players abroad.

I looked up Sport and Law and its definitely too expensive for me to purchase, though I'll see if one of the libraries in my University's network has it (I've actually only been to the library twice in nearly four years, and neither time to study). Stutts also suggested a book for me to have a look at. The paper is due in roughly 7 weeks so I do have some time. Thanks again for your help and advice, I'll definitely follow up with you if he approves the topic next week.