The macro-structure of football's global migration system: How linguistic, economic, and geographic boundaries constrain player mobility

Sport sociologists study how macro-level factors structure the global migration flows of athletes in professional football with three perspectives that theorize that some combination of cultural-linguistic similarities, global value-added chains, and geographical proximity structure migration in football. However, most studies use imprecise data and lack a micro-level foundation detailing why the hypothesized macro-structural factors shape the recruitment decisions of clubs and the migration choices of players. This study develops a theoretical framework with refutable hypotheses to analyze why the macro-level factors highlighted in existing theories shape the decisions of clubs and players and tests these hypotheses with data on all inter-country transfers from 2006 to 2022. Results indicate that migration connects all countries in world football, but the largest migration flows occur between countries located in close linguistic, economic, and geographic proximity. These results support theories that emphasize how linguistic and geographic boundaries structure migration, but cast doubt on theories of global value-added chains claiming that migration connects different economic tiers in world football. The labor market in football may be global, but most clubs and players operate in a linguistically, economically, and geographically bounded segment of that global labor market.