Football player migration in Greece: Wage differences and crowding-out effects
Football player migration in Greece: Wage differences and crowding-out effects

Author(s): Panagiotis Dimitropoulos
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Migration Studies, Sports Studies, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Crowding-out; football players; football league; Greece; migration;
Summary/Abstract: Athlete migration has been on the forefront of academic research for more than twenty years since the migration flows of footballers has increased significantly in Europe. Greece is among the top receiving countries of migrant football players in Europe despite the fact that the Greek championship is not highly competitive as other European leagues. The scope of this paper is to provide some initial evidence regarding the flow of foreign football players in the Greek league. The study analyzed a database of all migrant and local athletes that participated in the professional Greek football championship over the period 2001-2013 and performed descriptive analyses. Descriptive evidence suggests that football player migration has increased significantly from 2001 until 2013 yet the relative numbers of foreign athletes are lower than their natives’ counterparts. However, foreign athletes are utilized more by their coaches since they have more actual minutes of participation on clubs’ official matches and earn higher income than the native football players. These findings provide support to several voices echoing on the crowding out effect of native athletes by migrants.

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