Samenvatting

Soccer is the most important professional sport played in Europe. During the last two decades, both the flows of money and the institutional setting have changed dramatically. This paper provides an analysis of the Dutch professional league. How does that league compare to other European leagues? Especially as far as television revenue is concerned, the Dutch league lags the big leagues. This financial inequality has partially been caused by three important changes in the institutional environment: the introduction of the Champions League, the Bosman ruling and the liberalization of the players labour market, that accompanied that ruling. At the moment, an open European market for soccer talent exists, and a closed national product market for teams. Economies of scales exacerbates these problems, so in the near future, it is not to be expected that Dutch soccer teams will be able to compete successfully with their Spanish or British counterparts.