Kolpak ruling

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The Kolpak ruling is the EU ruling 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 regards 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 cricket and rugby league 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 baseball 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 but from a country that had an associate trading relationship, the decision meant that any player from any nation which had such a relationship with the EU could also freely play as a professional.

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 (currently two, though this is set to be reduced to one again).

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.

A county can register a cricketer under the Kolpak ruling if a player has not represented his country for over twelve months.

In rugby union and rugby league, the Kolpak ruling has allowed teams to sign a lot of players from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.