Winning football’s war for talent: highly skilled migration and the making of the English Premier League

ABSTRACT

The English Premier League (EPL) has undergone a significant commercial and economic transformation in the last 30 years. During this period, labour migration has emerged as a pre-eminent process in the development and competitiveness of the league. For the EPL’s 20 clubs, the desires to remain both commercially and performatively competitive on a global stage necessitates the requirement to identify, attract and retain as many highly skilled workers as possible. Therefore, like other talent intensive industries where success is predicated on the depth of the talent pool, a global ‘war for talent’ has emerged. Drawing on scholarship that has explored the recruitments of highly skilled migrants in other talent intensive economies, this paper shows how EPL clubs are consistently winning the global war for talent that has emerged in professional football. It also highlights the significant role that these workers play in the making and continued re-making of the EPL. 

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Elliott, ‘Chasing the Ball’.

2. Beaverstock, ‘Transnational Elites in Global Cities’.

3. Bond, Widdop and Chadwick, ‘Football’s Emerging Market Trade Network’.

4. Michaels et al, The War for Talent.

5. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football.

6. Deloitte, Annual Review of Football Finance.

7. Forbes, ‘Exclusive Infographics Show NFL, MLB, NBA And NHL Sponsorship Growth Over Last Decade’.

8. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football; and ‘The Globalisation of Football’.

9. Fynn, ‘How the 22-Headed Monster became the Most Popular League in the World’.

10. Deloitte, Annual Review of Football Finance.

11. Ibid.

12. Examples include Roman Abramovic’s purchase of Chelsea FC, the Glazer takeover of Manchester United FC and Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi United Group’s purchase of Manchester City FC.

13. Sassen, The Global City and Cities in a World Economy.

14. Sassen, The Global City.

15. For a fuller discussion of the embedded nature of transfer activity in core, semi-core and peripheral leagues, see Bond, Widdop and Chadwick, ‘Football’s emerging market trade network’.

16. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football; and ‘The Globalisation of Football’.

17. Friedman, ‘The World City Hypothesis’.

18. Beaverstock, ‘Highly Skilled International Labour Migration and World Cities’.

19. The concept of nodes is drawn from the field of geographical economics where it is used to explain value chains in the global economy.

20. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football; and ‘The Globalisation of Football’.

21. Beaverstock, ‘Subcontracting the Accountant!’

22. Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball.

23. Sklair, The Transnational Capitalist Class.

24. Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class.

25. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football.

26. Beaverstock, ‘Highly Skilled International Labour Migration and World Cities’.

27. Beaverstock, ‘Transnational Elite Communities in Global Cities’.

28. Sassen, The Global City.

29. Sassen, Cities in a World Economy.

30. Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.

31. Elliott, ‘Football’s Irish Exodus’.

32. Poli, ‘Understanding Globalization through Football’.

33. Beaverstock and Hall, ‘Competing for Talent’.

34. Beaverstock, ‘Immigration in the UK Labour Market in Financial Services’.

35. Faulconbridge et al, ‘The “War for Talent”’.

36. Beaverstock and Hall, ‘Competing for Talent’.

37. Beaverstock, ‘Transnational Elite Communities in Global Cities’.

38. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football.

39. Ibid.

40. Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung can be used as an example here. His signing resulted in a significant increase in the club’s Asian following and an increase in the number of commercial opportunities available in that region.

41. Elliott and Weedon, ‘Feet-drain or feet-exchange?’

42. Thrift, Spatial Formations.

43. Professional Footballers’ Association, Meltdown report.

44. Elliott and Weedon, ‘Feet-Drain or Feet-Exchange?’

45. Beaverstock and Hall, ‘Competing for Talent’.

46. Michaels et al, The War for Talent; Faulconbridge et al, ‘The “War for Talent”’; and Beaverstock, ‘Highly Skilled International Labour Migration and World Cities’.

47. CIES Football Observatory, Atlas of Migration.

48. Elliott, ‘Chasing the Ball’.

49. Poli et al, Football Observatory Annual Review 2020.

50. Rossi, ‘Agents and Intermediaries’.

51. Poli, ‘Understanding Globalization through Football’.

52. Michaels et al, The War for Talent.

53. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalisation of Football’, 555.