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The agreement by Barcelona to transfer the football player Neymar to Paris St Germain for €222m has provoked media outrage — but of the wrong kind. We should not be incensed by the pricetag, but by the fact that it remains legal for a business to sell an employee to another business.

Barcelona sold Neymar to PSG. That is the only reason he is allowed to move. He could not have sold himself, and had he sought to transfer to another club of his own volition, and without Barcelona’s agreement, he could have been banished from professional football.

Most readers of this column will have a job — how would you feel if your current employer said you could not take up an opportunity at another company unless they received compensation equal to four or five times your annual salary? How would you feel if your employer said you could not even talk to another company interested in hiring you without their prior consent? You would almost certainly go to court to defend your rights — in the EU, you would almost certainly win. The free movement of labour clauses of EU law protect your autonomy in this regard. We accept this as right and good. Why, then, are we comfortable with the bartering of professional football players?

Consider further that this business transaction actually hurts Neymar financially — the money PSG pays to Barcelona could have been part of his individual compensation had he been allowed to bargain on his own behalf. Of course, he is already a multi-millionaire; few will have sympathy for his financial plight here. But FIFPro, the player’s union which by its own account represents more than 60,000 professional players, does not speak just for the superstars and the mega-rich. I estimate, in fact, that the median salary of its members is less than $50,000.

For the vast majority of players, the restrictions imposed by the transfer system can create genuine hardship. For example, in many countries, players in the lesser leagues routinely do not get paid their wages. Yet the transfer regulations stipulate that they cannot even begin the process of finding another employer until they have gone without pay for a full six months. Imagine you are a middle-class employee, perhaps with a family. You have not seen a paycheck in four months, but you cannot leave or even try to find another job.

The transfer system as it currently stands was created in 2001, following the 1995 Bosman judgment of the European Court of Justice, which declared the old transfer system illegal — precisely because it did not respect the right of free movement. Astonishing as it may sound, the new system was agreed between Fifa (then headed by Sepp Blatter) and the European Commission, without the consent of the players’ representatives. Unsurprisingly, it favours the employers.

Research by FIFPro has identified other forms of abuse in the transfer system. Players who ask to leave their club against owners’ wishes are bullied, harassed, and at times even physically abused. No one would tolerate this state of affairs in any other business (with the possible exception of organised prostitution), but naive young professional players can be easily exploited.

To be sure, many clubs are exemplary employers and treat players well — but basic rights should not be a matter of your employer’s goodwill. Consequently, FIFPro has now brought a complaint to the commission seeking to have the current system ruled illegal. In an economic analysis for the union, I found that the transfer system helps cement the dominance of the largest clubs: exorbitant transfer fees act as a barrier to smaller clubs. As a result, a large fraction of transfer fee revenue just circulates among the dominant clubs in Europe.

The idea of abolishing the transfer system makes many football fans weak at the knees; they fear that small clubs that rely on transfer fee income would collapse. There are two responses: first, small clubs depend on transfer revenue far less than fans believe, and the transfer market is of little help when it comes to financial crises because prices fall in a fire sale. Even if a small club occasionally does well out of the system, the second point is far more important: equality before the law is a bedrock principle of liberal democracies. We simply must not deprive one class of people of the rights that the rest of us enjoy just because the victims supply us with entertainment.

The transfer system is nothing less than a global trafficking scheme in human labour — shockingly, it represents an agreement between the representatives of national governments and employers to erase employees’ rights

PSG may be a financial giant, but they were not considered to be competing in attractiveness as a destination when compared to Madrid, Barcelona, or Bayern. Neymar's transfer now officially throws PSG out as an immensely successful destination. It establishes PSG as a club that can even lure players away from the likes of Barcelona.

That's a pretty big f*cking deal. Neymar's transfer, much like Pogba's, is a statement.

Not only this, but I bet it would be fun playing while living in Paris. Destination-wise, PSG hits the jackpot. Just my opinion though ^.^

PSG will never be a final destination because it relies on the league it belongs to. I can see Neymar moving back to England or Real Madrid after 3 or 4 years of Football holidays and European failure when even after Ronaldo/Messi he would still get 0 Ballon d' Or.
He switched the Clasico for PSG - Marseille or Monaco which are weakened this season by departures and cheap replacements, he will get free national trophies but will stop in CL quarters.
The bright side of the story at Barca is that we got rid of a diva that had capricious relationship with the club and a player who don't defend on the pitch. It's like Madrid loosing Bale, if we get proper replacement to positions we are lacking, there will be only marketing impact to this departure.

Football is becoming more and more like slavery!

I think Bale is more loyal to Madrid than Neymar is to Barcelona. Probably because Bale doesn't have a greedy bastard agent for a father.