Kolpak ruling

The Kolpak ruling is a European Court of Justice ruling handed down on May 8, 2003 in favour of Maros Kolpak, a Slovak handball player. His legal actions in Germany set a precedent for professional sports in Europe, which have had a wide-ranging effect, especially in regard to English county cricket and British professional rugby.

Correspondingly, a Kolpak player or Kolpak, is a term used in the United Kingdom for players in the domestic leagues in cricket and both rugby codes from overseas, subject to the Kolpak clause.

The court decision was based upon the idea that no resident of the European Union should be prevented from working in another part of the EU. Specifically the case meant that, in professional sports, if a sporting club chose a player who resided in the EU, then there could be no law preventing this. For example, a German basketball team could not be prevented from hiring a Greek player since both nations are members of the EU. Moreover, since Kolpak was not from the EU at the time the case was decided, but from a country that had an associate trading relationship, [A few months after the decision, on January 1, 2004, Slovakia joined the EU.] the decision meant that any player from any nation which had such a relationship with the EU could also freely play as a professional.

Cricket

In practice, the decision has allowed English county cricket clubs to employ the services of a multitude of overseas cricketers - especially from South Africa. At the time of the ruling, ECB rules had limited each county to one overseas professional.

County cricket clubs could already employ any number of EU residents under the Bosman ruling. There are no other strong cricketing nations within the EU, however, which explains why it was Kolpak, not Bosman, which has had the significant impact on English county cricket. The largest group of countries with an associate agreement with the EU is the ACP countries, which include South Africa, Zimbabwe, and many of the nations which supply the West Indies cricket team.

The ECB had originally stated that a player must not have represented their own country for over twelve months in order to qualify for Kolpak status but after Jacques Rudolph signed for Yorkshire, they admitted that they were powerless to enforce this rule. [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/southafrica/content/story/287993.html]

In an effort to combat the influx of Kolpak players, the ECB has linked the central payments made to counties, to the amount of English qualified players who represent the county. This in effect means that every game a Kolpak player plays instead of an English qualified player, a county gets £1,100 less from the ECB. [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/220424.html]

Being a Kolpak does not mean that a player is qualified to play for England; The main requirement for qualification for England is that the player must be a British or an Irish citizen and, if he was not born within England or Wales, he must complete a four-year residence period.

Current County cricketers registered under Kolpak

*Derbyshire - Wavell Hinds, Charl Langeveldt, Greg Smith
*Durham - Dale Benkenstein, Garry Park, Shaun Pollock
*Essex - Grant Flower
*Gloucestershire - Anthony Ireland
*Hampshire - Nantie Hayward , Rory Kleinveldt, Greg Lamb
*Kent - Martin van Jaarsveld, Ryan McLaren, Justin Kemp
*Lancashire - Francois du Plessis
*Leicestershire - HD Ackerman, Claude Henderson, Garnett Kruger, Jermaine Lawson, Dillon du Preez, Jacques du Toit
*Middlesex - Tyron Henderson
*Northamptonshire - Riki Wessels, Lance Klusener, Andrew Hall, Johan van der Wath, Nicky Boje
*Nottinghamshire - Andre Adams
*Somerset - Charl Willoughby, Zander de Bruyn, Alfonso Thomas
*Surrey - Pedro Collins
*Sussex - Murray Goodwin, Corey Collymore
*Yorkshire - Deon Kruis, Jacques Rudolph

Rugby

In rugby league and rugby union, the Kolpak ruling has allowed teams to sign many players from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, all of which are also ACP countries. Many rugby union clubs have also signed South African players under Kolpak. In a related issue, all-time All Blacks (New Zealand) scoring leader Andrew Mehrtens, who was born in Durban, decided to pursue a South African passport when he signed with the English side Harlequins for the 2005-06 National Division One season, as it would enable the club to sign another non-EU and non-Kolpak player.

ee also

* Bosman ruling, a similar case in football

Notes and references

External links

* [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2003/c_146/c_14620030621en00050005.pdf Text of the ECJ judgment] (PDF)
* [http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Rechercher&alldocs=alldocs&docj=docj&docop=docop&docor=docor&docjo=docjo&numaff=C-438/00&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100 Link to ECJ documents related to decision]
* [http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/publications/kolpak-ruling,499,BP.html Kolpak ruling]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/3529413.stm Counties fear Kolpak]