New Europe,new chances? The migration of professional footballers to Poland’s Ekstraklasa

Introduction

The migrations of professional footballers have become one of the most ubiquitous markers of the globalisation of sport in the 21st century. Indeed, the magnitude, composition and direction of migration in the game has meant that there are few parts of the globe that are now not affected by the movements of players, managers, coaches and other support staff. In many cases these migrations follow the trends identifiable in the movement of workers in various other spheres of employment – in this respect, movement often occurs towards what one might term the core economies (Bohning, 1984; Fischer et al., 1997; Magee and Sugden, 2002).

Football’s core economies are located in Western Europe and comprise the ‘big-five’ European leagues (English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1) and various other leagues located just outside of the big five. These leagues, and some of the teams within them, generally command the greatest media interest, the broadest (sometimes global) fan bases and the highest revenues (Deloitte, 2011).

Not all of Europe’s football leagues are located at or near the core, however. Like many facets of life in a globalised world, the globalisation of football has not been even over time. Political, economic and cultural factors have influenced the permeation of the global sport par excellence (Elliott and Weedon, 2010) into different parts of Europe (and the world) at different times. Moreover, it should not be assumed that the globalisation of football and the relative (economic) success of some teams and leagues should be seen to mimic the economic success of nations in broader terms; some of the world’s most powerful economies are located outside of football’s economic core (Magee and Sugden, 2002).

It is not my intention to examine the migrations of football workers into what might be referred to as one of Europe’s ‘elite’ leagues in this paper – others have already done this (see Magee and Sugden, 2002; Maguire and Stead, 1998; Stead and Maguire, 2000 for example). Rather, I analyse the movements of workers (players specifically in this case) into one of Europe’s lesser-known leagues – the Polish Ekstraklasa. I do this for two reasons; firstly, to make some sense of the Ekstraklasa’s place in football’s European order and to establish if this positioning is significant in terms of the migrations of foreign players; and, secondly, to make some tentative observations as to why migrant players might ‘select’ the Ekstraklasa as their migration destination over other European leagues. To begin to make sense of these objectives, the first part of the paper examines the movements of workers in football.

Migration in football

There can be little doubt that the contemporary globalisation of sport has been marked by the increasing numbers of athletes who, for any number of reasons, migrate from their country of birth to ply their athletic labour. Most, if not all, elite sports leagues and competitions now host athletes from a broad cross-section of places, with an increasingly identifiable series of ‘talent-pipelines’ (Maguire et al., 2002) becoming observable in some sports. Movements into and within professional football have increased significantly in the past 20 years. Therefore, whilst there is a certain amount of truth in the contention that migration in football is as old as the game itself (Taylor, 2006), it has been during the game’s more recent history that an intensification in the globalisation of labour has become more evident (see Poli et al., 2011).

The reasons for the intensification in migratory movements are reflective of a series of interdependent processes, some of which are specific to the game, others of which are manifest in broader processes of globalisation. For example, at a general level, the ability to traverse the globe with relative ease has made places that, until relatively recently, seemed distant, appear close. Moreover, technological advancement, in recent times driven by internet-based technologies, has made global communication cheaper and easier. More specifically, in football, the increasing commercialisation of the game at the elite level, driven, in part, by the developing relationships between sponsors, advertisers and the media, has resulted in the exponential growth in salaries for elite players plying their trade in one of Europe’s core economies (Deloitte, 2011). The 1995 Bosman case also significantly impacted the mobility of players (Taylor, 2006) and influenced the salaries that they were/are able to command.

A cursory analysis of the changing financial structure of professional football (especially in Europe’s big-five leagues) highlights, very clearly, the significant growth in club and league revenues, media rights sales, player valuations and salary costs (see, for example, the annually produced Deloitte Review of Football Finance and Football Money League (Deloitte, 2011)). The rise in salary costs is particularly significant given that some European leagues have witnessed enormous salary growth in the last 20 years. The increase in salaries has led some scholars to argue that the major influencing factor in determining a player’s decision to migrate is the ‘mercenary’ (Maguire, 1996) desire to secure the greatest financial reward that can be offered by a club (Andreff, 2009). Outside of professional sport, such contentions would seem sensible, given that migration often occurs to take advantage of positive wage disparities (Fischer et al., 1997).

Whilst the mercenary desire to command the highest salary may influence a player’s decision to migrate, it is rarely the only antecedent to a player’s move. As Maguire and Pearton (2000) have identified, the practice of ‘following the money’ (p.761) is interconnected with a broader series of processes that reflect political, historical, cultural and geographical patterns. In this respect, research that has examined the motives behind the movements of professional footballers has identified that a range of processes contour the decision to migrate. These include the need to seek out a professional sporting experience, an intensity of commitment, the desire to test one’s abilities at the highest level and the capacity to take advantage of cultural similarities, such as language familiarity (Maguire and Stead, 1998; Molnar and Maguire, 2008; Stead and Maguire, 2000). In addition, Magee and Sugden (2002) have shown that migration does not always occur by choice. On some occasions players may be pushed from a particular location, they might be exiled or expelled from the league or even the country in which they currently ply their trade.

This latter point is interesting, specifically in the context of push factors where a player might not be presented with a full range of choices from which to select their migration destination. Whilst I am not suggesting here that the migrants examined in this paper are in some way exiled or expelled as in Magee and Sugden’s (2002) context, I am suggesting that their range of options may be limited for one reason or another. This is an important point, because, as Carter (2011) points out, not all athletic migrants are part of a ‘free moving cosmopolitan population who strategically engage in migration to further careers and earn significant wealth’ (p.5). Therefore, for the migrants being examined in this paper, it is important to make sense of the pull and push factors that often contour migration decisions. Issues that include, for example, the overproduction of athletic labour and the resultant flooding of leagues in different parts of the world. This has certainly presented a problem for workers in sports such as basketball and ice hockey, where migration to England, for example, is marked by North American ‘ambitionist’ (Magee and Sugden, 2002) type migrants who would otherwise struggle to find professional playing opportunities in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) or in the more established European leagues (Elliott and Maguire, 2008a, 2008b, 2011; Maguire, 1988, 1996).

Push factors also include the lack of opportunity for career development in a player’s home nation. This has been seen to be the case in the migration of North American football (soccer) players out of the American sporting space (Elliott and Harris, 2011). In addition, the increasingly commonplace migrations of African players to leagues in Europe can, arguably, be identified as the result of a lack of opportunities in the various leagues located on the continent (Darby, 2007; Darby et al., 2007). Whilst there are a number of very good club sides located in African nations, for many African players, these clubs simply do not match their level of ability or desire.

Taking these factors into account, it is argued that the motivations of the migrants being examined in this paper cannot be reduced to any single causal factor. Indeed, their decision to migrate should not simply be reduced to a series of intrinsic and largely personal influences. To be truly meaningful, the various structural concerns, or push factors, should also be taken into consideration, along with the more personal determinants of the motivation to migrate. Only when this combination of factors is considered can some preliminary observations be made with respect to the migrant motivations under examination in this particular context. To help make sense of the structural determinants evident in the decisions of players migrating to Poland’s Ekstraklasa, the next part of the paper seeks to place the league in football’s European order.

Polish football and the Ekstraklasa

It was during the late 1980s that the transition from communist state to capitalist system with parliamentary democracy occurred in Poland (Prazmowska, 2004). Until this point, and like many of the countries of the former Eastern communist bloc, Poland was unable to fully engage with the ongoing processes of globalisation that were occurring, at different rates, in other parts of the world. Indeed, the collapse of communism left many Eastern European countries in a very poor state both economically and socially (see Molnar, 2007, for example). However, at the same time, the end of communism in Poland provided new freedoms that had previously been restricted for citizens of the country, freedoms that included the capacity to migrate beyond national borders without fear of reprisal. The ability to move across national borders into and out of Poland freely would significantly affect migratory patterns in a general sense, but also in football.

From the end of the Second World War to the late 1980s most Polish footballers were not permitted to make permanent moves outside of the country to ply their athletic labour. During this period, Poland’s national team achieved some of its most significant successes, including third place finishes in both the 1974 (Germany) and 1982 (Spain) World Cups, as well as winning an Olympic gold medal in 1972 in Munich and Olympic silvers in 1976 in Montreal (and later in 1992 in Barcelona). During the 1970s, many of Poland’s best footballers were playing in Poland. This situation changed, however, at the end of the 1970s when several high-profile Poles were permitted to leave Poland for Europe’s more established leagues. These players included Boniek (Juventus), Deyna (Manchester City) and Szarmach (Auxerre) (Lanfranchi and Taylor, 2001). For the most part, however, Poland retained the majority of its most talented players. It is perhaps unsurprising then that at this time, and until the collapse of communism, the Polish domestic leagues and national team flourished.

After what might be termed a ‘golden era’ for Polish football, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, the period from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s was one of uncertainty, with the national team failing to qualify for any major tournament until the 2002 World Cup Finals. However, whilst the national team struggled, this new democratic period was marked by a move away from Poland’s footballing past where leagues were structured around military teams and the police (Lenartowicz and Karwacki, 2005) to one where there was an increasing sense of professionalisation, marked by the development of Poland’s top league – the Ekstraklasa. The placing of the Ekstraklasa in football’s European order has fluctuated in recent years. In the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) ranking system, the league has been ranked as high as 17th (in 2001) and as low as 43rd (in 2009). In the latest UEFA ranking the Ekstraklasa is ranked as the 24th best league in Europe (out of 53). In this respect, it can be argued that the Ekstraklasa sits outside of European football’s core economies. This is unsurprising given the manner in which the collapse of communism has impinged the development of football in Eastern European nations.

Whilst the numerical ranking of the Polish Ekstraklasa has fluctuated in recent years, Figure 1 shows how the league’s financial turnover has increased steadily since 2006, rising from 183m Zloty (41m Euro) in 2006 to 303m Zloty (68m Euro) in 2010.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Ekstraklasa turnover – 2006/2010.

This increase in turnover might seem to suggest that the league is doing well financially. However, whilst this may be true to a point, the economic impact of the Ekstraklasa only becomes evident when the league’s turnover is compared to Europe’s ‘big five’. Then, as Figure 2 shows, it can be seen that the league’s turnover is a fraction of that generated in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 2.

Turnover of Polish Ekstraklasa relative to Europe’s ‘big five’.

In this respect, the Ekstraklasa must be positioned alongside leagues with similar financial profiles. When this is done, and as Figure 3 shows, the Ekstraklasa is located at the bottom of a group of leagues that includes the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland and Austria.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 3.

Polish Ekstraklasa turnover grouping.

Whilst the Ekstraklasa may not match the financial strength of some other European leagues, it can be argued that jointly hosting the 2012 UEFA European Championships with their neighbours the Ukraine could, potentially, help the Ekstraklasa clubs to improve their financial position. For example, significant levels of investment have been made in facilities, largely in the hope that a new generation of fans will be attracted to Ekstraklasa matches, thus increasing the income generated from gate receipts and television revenues (Deloitte Polska, 2011). In addition, it might also be the case that hosting the event will help the Ekstraklasa clubs to attract better quality foreign players to the country and the league, a process that would seem to be already underway.

The number of foreign players being recruited to the teams of the Ekstraklasa has grown in recent years. For example, whilst only 32 foreign players were playing in the league during the 1998/1999 season, 116 were registered with Ekstraklasa teams in 2010/2011 (Stec, 2010). In recent years Ekstraklasa clubs have expanded their scouting networks and, as a consequence, players from 42 different nations currently play in the league (Stec, 2010). Of the Ekstraklasa teams, Wisla Krakow and Widzew Lodz have the most multinational squads with players from 15 and 11 different nations represented, respectively.

Of the foreign players represented in the league, the largest numbers originate from Serbia (15), with Slovakia (14) and Brazil (11) following closely behind. In total, there are 77 European players in the league, 19 South Americans, 18 Africans and 2 North Americans (Stec, 2010). The migratory routes observable in the movements of players into the Ekstraklasa follow similar trends to those observed by Molnar (2006, 2011) in his examination of the migrations of professional footballers to Hungary. Like Molnar’s analyses, the majority of the Ekstraklasa’s migrant players originate from locations with ‘geographical proximity, fewer cultural differences, analogous football development and well-functioning agent networks’ (2006: 468). In this respect many of the Ekstraklasa’s migrant players originate from other Eastern European nations where similar economic, cultural and political climates exist. This might, in part, explain why some of the migrations occur.

It is clear, however, that migrants playing in the Ekstraklasa also originate from a range of countries located outside of Eastern Europe. For these players, migration to Poland may represent movements to a league more commensurate with the players’ abilities, or because a lack of opportunity exists in the players home nation – processes that have been captured in the analyses of athletic movements before (see Elliott and Harris, 2011; Elliott and Maguire, 2008b; Maguire, 1996). In order to establish if this is the case, a number of foreign players plying their trade in the Ekstraklasa were interviewed. The next part of the paper examines their responses and establishes a preliminary framework to capture the motivations of migrant workers moving into the league.

Foreign players in the Ekstraklasa: method

In order to make some preliminary observations with respects to the migrations of foreign players to the Polish Ekstraklasa, a qualitative method was employed utilising individual, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Four migrant players who played in the Ekstraklasa during the 2010/2011 season were interviewed. As with other studies of this nature (see Magee and Sugden, 2002, for example), one of the key methodological difficulties lay with access to interviewees – a problem often exacerbated in ‘the impregnable world of professional football’ (Magee and Sugden, 2002: 423). For this study access was granted via a known gatekeeper based at a Polish Ekstraklasa club. The gatekeeper was able to gain the consent of the four migrant players based at his club. All of the players spoke good English and in this regard the decision was taken to conduct the interviews in English for consistency and without the need for translation. All of the interviews were conducted at the club in Poland. They were subsequently transcribed in order that a thematic analysis could be conducted to establish the various emergent themes.

For the sake of anonymity the names of the players have been changed and the team they play/have played for omitted. The four players include Oscar, a 30-year-old Zimbabwean who has played for three Ekstraklasa clubs over a nine-year period; Niko, a 21-year-old Croatian international recently purchased from the Croatian Prva Hrvatska nogometna liga (HNL); Aleksander, a 26-year-old Serbian who moved to Poland in 2006; and Carlos, a 27-year-old Spaniard who has been playing in the Ekstraklasa since 2007, following a move from the Spanish third division. The players were asked a range of questions relating to their motivations to migrate to clubs in the Polish Ekstraklasa. What follows are the responses and some preliminary analysis of the findings from the interviews.

Financial rewards

It is apparent that the contemporary professionalisation of football has been marked by significant increases in players’ salaries, driven, in part, by EU legislation following the 1995 Bosman ruling, the exponential growth in television revenues and the global expansion strategies pursued by certain leagues and clubs. What is also clear, however, is that not all leagues and teams are able to generate the revenues of Europe’s ‘big-five’ leagues, or clubs such as Manchester United, Barcelona or Real Madrid. Given the very difficult social and economic position from which Polish professional football has had to develop since the collapse of communism, the Ekstraklasa has clearly not achieved anywhere near the kind of revenue growth observable in Europe’s elite leagues and, as a result, the financial rewards on offer to players in Poland’s top division are more limited.

When asked about financial rewards as a motivation to play in Poland, the responses of the players were varied. For example, Niko, when asked if earning a good salary was important, suggested: ‘yes, of course it is, it [football] is something where I earn and I live, of course I earn more here than in Croatia’. Aleksander responded in a similar vein: ‘we have to be honest, footballers can improve their social situation while playing abroad by earning more money than in homeland domestic leagues’. The Zimbabwean, Oscar, felt differently, however, when asked about earning the best possible salary. He commented:

I take football as an entertainment and also passion, because I just don’t play football because I want to get money and go home. Also, you need to enjoy yourself while you play football, and also to make other people happy when you play … if you play football you play it for the fans and for yourself … when they are happy, I am happy.

Clearly, the financial rewards available as a professional footballer were of greater importance for some players than others. However, for the most part, the players interviewed all suggested that they could command a higher salary in the Ekstraklasa, than they could in their home-nation league, and that this was a factor which helped influence their decision to migrate. Somewhat unsurprisingly, therefore, the ability to take advantage of positive wage disparities can be seen to be influential in motivating this group of migrants to select the Ekstraklasa as their migration destination. However, whilst the desire to secure the best possible salary was evident for the players, money alone could not fully capture the complexities of their decisions to migrate.

Playing in Europe’s prestigious competitions

It can be argued that the opportunity to play in one of Europe’s elite club competitions – either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League – can act as a significant pull factor influencing a migrant player’s decision to move to a particular league and, more specifically, a particular club (Lanfranchi and Taylor, 2001; Magee and Sugden, 2002). All of the players interviewed for this study were playing at a club where there was an opportunity to play in one of the two competitions and this factor proved to be highly significant in influencing decisions to migrate. Oscar, for example, suggested: ‘yeah, that’s another thing, [club] is a club which every year they have to play in either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup (Europa League) which is, for every player, a motivation’. Niko echoed Oscar’s comment by arguing: ‘yes, of course it is, it is one of the main reasons, because if a club can play in the Champions League it is one of the main reasons’. Aleksander’s response was similar:

Yes of course I was thinking about it. For every player opportunity of playing in Champions League is something special and something they dream about, so it was one of the reasons.

Carlos reiterated the feelings of the other players, although his interest in playing in a European club competition was linked to securing the best possible playing opportunity, he remarked: ‘my motivation was to play in the first league and to try to play in the European Cup’.

Certainly it would seem that the desire to play in one of Europe’s elite club competitions acted as a significant motivating factor for the players interviewed. Indeed, all of the players placed their desire to play in either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League very highly when considering their motivations to migrate. However, whilst the desire to play in European competition was clearly significant, the ease with which these players could relocate and the opportunities available to them were also contributory factors in their migrations.

Ease, sameness and opportunity

Whilst not directly related to the players’ decisions to specifically select Poland as their migration destination, one influencing factor, which appeared repeatedly during interviews, was the ease with which these athletes could traverse the globe and communicate with their families. The ability to communicate, predominantly through internet-based technologies, was seen as highly valuable for the players. Oscar, for example, commented:

I think that technology is good; also it helps to make it easier with the contact with family. Other guys, they come from Serbia, which is one-and-a-half hours to home, but me, I need two days to go to Zimbabwe. So I cannot fly often to my family, so I need to call them to see how they are.

Carlos and Niko shared Oscar’s perception of the importance of being able to communicate with their families. Carlos, for example, stated: ‘I cannot have contact with my family, so I use the internet’. Arguably, Niko summed up the importance of communication most succinctly, though. He remarked: ‘I use Skype, MSN, everything and almost every day I am in touch with my family; basically, it’s almost like I am at home’.

Beyond the ability to communicate with his family, Niko also commented on how his migration had been made easier because of a range of socio-cultural similarities between his home nation of Croatia and Poland. In this regard, he remarked: ‘yes, also the similar Slavic nations, the language is similar it only could help me to move here’. Similarly, the Serbian Aleksander reinforced Niko’s point: ‘there are plenty of similarities with my country and that has helped me to make my decision to play in Poland’. Given the sentiments of the two Eastern European players, it would seem possible that the geographical proximity of other Eastern European nations, and their cultural sameness (including language similarity), when coupled with the ease of communication via internet-based technologies, would make a country such as Poland a more desirable migration destination. What though, of players who are not from other countries located in Eastern Europe?

For Carlos, migrating to the Ekstraklasa from the Spanish third division was all about improving chances and gaining opportunities that were not available in his home nation. For example, Carlos explained how, in Spain: ‘there were five players in the same position … so it was difficult for me to stay and play in Spain’. He went on to add:

In Spain I was playing in the third league, I didn’t have an opportunity to play in the first division and I came here to try to do it. I know it is not the same level, but it can help me to progress in my career.

In this respect, whilst for the Eastern European players their migrations to Poland were based more so on cultural similarity, for Carlos, migration to the Ekstraklasa was determined by the lack of opportunity available in his home nation. Interestingly, Carlos believed that the Ekstraklasa was merely a means to an end in that he hoped to improve as a player during his time in the league and then, hopefully, move into one of Europe’s more established leagues. This was a view that was held by all of the players interviewed.

Ekstraklasa as ‘stepping stone’

It became evident from speaking to the players that it wasn’t just Carlos who wished to move on from the Ekstraklasa and to develop his career. All of the players viewed their time with Ekstraklasa clubs as being in flux with aspirations to use the league as a kind of ‘stepping stone’ to the bigger Western European leagues. Niko, for example, was very clear about his future intentions:

I had doubts to maybe wait, maybe another offer would come from another bigger club from Western Europe … but I wanted to keep on my career as soon as possible so I moved here … I think that this is a good station for me to transfer to Western league and it can only go forward … I hope to migrate to Western Europe.

Oscar commented in a similar manner and discussed how he felt he could use his time in the Ekstraklasa to move on to a better league elsewhere in Europe. He remarked: ‘when the chance for me to come to Poland arise (sic) I said okay, let me go and play and see what will happen. If you play well you get a chance to go further’. Aleksander added: ‘I think I made a good move by deciding to play in Poland, it’s closer to Western Europe’.

Whilst Carlos had discussed his move to Poland and the scope for career progression when revealing the lack of opportunities he faced in his home nation, he also commented specifically on his aspirations to move on from the Ekstraklasa:

At the beginning I only supposed (sic) to stay here for one year, but I decided to sign a longer contract. Now I have two more years and of course I’m happy here, but of course I would like to win a championship in Poland and then, of course, I would like to improve here or in another country and to try new other leagues.

Carlos’ and the other players’ desire to move on from their Ekstraklasa club reveals something not only about the players’ motivations to select the Ekstraklasa as their migration destination, but also their longer-term motivations to improve as athletes and to secure the best possible employment opportunities, wherever they may be located.

The complexities of migrant motivation: some preliminary observations

A preliminary analysis of the motivations of migrant professional footballers selecting the Polish Ekstraklasa as their migration destination builds on some of the research already conducted in the area of athletic labour migration. This analysis has shown that migrants are motivated to ply their athletic labour in a foreign country for a number of interdependent reasons. With respect to the players examined in this study, economic and cultural motivators were significant. However, these factors were juxtaposed with the desire to play in the most prestigious European club competitions, and the ambition to further one’s career, particularly if the migrant was pushed from their homeland because of a lack of opportunity for career development. Moreover, the entire migratory process was made more desirable by the ease with which these athletes could relocate and the various tools available allowing them to communicate with their families, thus countering the problems of dislocation often felt by some migrants (for example, see Maguire and Stead, 1998; Stead and Maguire, 2000; Weedon, 2011).

It is somewhat unsurprising that the migrants examined in this analysis did not place a greater emphasis on financial reward. This is not to say that salary was insignificant – on the contrary – the need to make ends meet was clearly important. Important also was the capacity to be able to take advantage of the positive wage disparities that existed between the Ekstraklasa and the migrants’ home-nation leagues. However, all responses relating to contract and salary seemed to come with the realisation that the Ekstraklasa is not one of European football’s elite leagues and on this basis, whilst money was important, it was always felt that other factors were more important, factors such as playing in Europe’s elite club competitions.

The players interviewed all placed great value on the desire to play in either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League. It would seem that this desire stemmed from their competitive nature, whereby the players sought to prove themselves at the highest levels and against the best competition, and because they felt that these competitions could act as a kind of ‘shop window’ through which they could be spotted, increasing the likelihood of being scouted by a bigger club in a more established European league. Combined, both elements showed that ambition clearly comprised a significant part of the decision to migrate.

All of the players interviewed expressed a desire to move on from the Ekstraklasa to one of Europe’s more established leagues. In this respect, it was clear that the migrants saw the league as a ‘stepping stone’ in their careers. Whether or not the league can actually provide such a function is beyond the scope of this analysis. However, given that three of the players interviewed had already spent a significant period of their career in the league, it might seem unlikely that time spent in the Ekstraklasa has prepared these players for upward migrations to more established leagues. This does not mean, though, that the Ekstraklasa is not a desirable migration destination for certain types of migrants.

Arguably, the two Eastern European players interviewed had selected the Ekstraklasa because it represented the highest quality league commensurate with their abilities, but, importantly, also a league that they could move to with relative ease, given the geographical proximity of the country and the social, economic and cultural similarities – pull factors already identified as important in the migrations of Eastern European players by Molnar and Maguire (2008) in their study of Hungarian football, and in other sports (Elliott and Maguire, 2008b; Genest, 1994; Maguire, 1996).

For the two players who originated from outside of Eastern Europe, the social and cultural pull factors were of less significance. In these cases it was push factors that were more prominent, specifically the lack of opportunity in the athletes’ home nation, which for these players occurred in two different ways. For the African player, the lack of opportunity for career development in Zimbabwe existed because of the limited number of professional playing opportunities in that country, a problem that exists for many African players of greater ability, many of whom now migrate to Europe to ply their trade (Darby et al., 2007). Therefore, this player was pushed from Africa to Europe where many more opportunities to secure a professional career in the game exist. Whilst the Ekstraklasa might exist on the periphery of Europe’s football economy, a move to this league still represents advancement for this player. For the player from Spain, the problem was somewhat different.

Originating from a nation that sits at the economic core of the global game, possesses one of Europe’s ‘big-five’ leagues and whose national team are recent World and European Champions, there is clearly not a lack of professional playing opportunities in Spain. However, what there may be is an overproduction of indigenous athletic talent, a level of competition that is simply too great for some players, and a league that provides both the salary and the desirability to attract some of the world’s most talented foreign players. These sorts of problems have been identified in research before (Elliott and Harris, 2011; Elliott and Maguire, 2008b; Miller et al., 2003). When these factors are combined they push those athletes who are unable to secure playing opportunities in their home nation out to various other leagues – in this case, the Polish Ekstraklasa. Whilst the player interviewed for this study could continue playing in Spain, this was in the country’s third division. In Poland, the player has the opportunity to play in the first division, and also European competitions, opportunities that would not be available in Spain and that underline not only the importance of ambition in structuring migration motives, but also the manner in which some migrants are required to locate the best employment opportunities outside of their home nation.

Conclusion

This preliminary analysis has identified that the Polish Ekstraklasa is not one of Europe’s elite football leagues. Indeed, whilst revenues are continuing to grow in the league, its turnover still places it amongst a group that mostly comprises Europe’s middle to lower order leagues. This is somewhat unsurprising given that the development of professional football in Poland is reflective of a series of challenges left over from the legacy of the communist regime. Unlike Western European leagues that have developed over decades in capitalist, and increasingly, globalised and mediatised economies, the development of the Ekstraklasa has been hindered not only by the loss of state funding and a range of other geopolitical and economic challenges, but also simply because other leagues in Western Europe have been able, in the interim period, to establish themselves in the European football system. The result is that the Polish Ekstraklasa now finds itself in a state of ‘dependent development’ based largely on the limited financial resources of the Ekstraklasa clubs relative to the teams of the more established Western European leagues. Because the league finds itself in this position, the most talented indigenous players will usually seek employment outside of Poland in one of the more established European leagues (although it should be noted that these players are few in number relative to other talent-exporting counties). Meanwhile, the Ekstraklasa clubs are left to recruit those indigenous players who either cannot or do not want to migrate from Poland and migrants, such as those examined in this paper, who are unable, for one reason or another, to secure employment in the more prestigious European leagues and who, in some cases, may have been pushed from their home nation.

Whilst the development of the Ekstraklasa has been slower relative to other leagues in Western Europe and the numbers of foreign players plying their trade in the league is still relatively small compared to some of Europe’s more established leagues, it would appear that the Ekstraklasa still has much to offer migrants who might not be able to secure employment in one of football’s core economies. Firstly, and irrespective of the league’s financial development, migration to the Ekstraklasa still provides an opportunity for players to secure greater financial rewards than may be available in other leagues, such as those located in Africa or in other Eastern European nations. Secondly, the Ekstraklasa provides an opportunity for migrants to play in a top division when this opportunity might be limited elsewhere. Thirdly, migrants playing in one of the league’s top teams may have the opportunity to play in one of Europe’s elite club competitions, thus showcasing their talents at the highest levels and to a larger audience. Fourthly, it may be possible that the Ekstraklasa can be used as a stepping stone to a more established league in Western Europe (although the evidence to support this argument is limited from this analysis).

Clearly a series of pull factors are at work that motivate migrants to select the Polish Ekstraklasa as their migration destination. However, rarely will these pull factors work in isolation. More commonly they will work in tandem with a series of push factors that will propel migrants from particular locations. In this respect, whilst the more personal benefits of a move to Poland, such as financial reward or the opportunity to play in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League, should be considered to be important, significant also are factors such as the lack of opportunity for career development in an athlete’s home nation, or the overproduction of athletic talent in certain places. Arguably, both the pull and push factors were at work for the migrants examined in this study.