The Legal Implication of “Buying and Selling of Players”: The Propertisation of Athletes in the Football Transfer Market (Lessons to Kenya)

Abstract

This study examines the football transfer policy and how it affects the footballers considering whether they are indeed bought and sold as property. The global transfer policy has evolved over the years since the first official “sale” of a football player in 1893. While in the 20 th century footballers were deemed as normal laborers, an influx of money into the game from wealthy owners such as Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich who bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and financed their success in recent years. Top clubs now have American, Middle Eastern and even Chinese owners pumping large sums of money into them, even with the (astronomical) rise of transfer fees.