Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose

by Simon Kuper, Stefan Szymanski

Overview

Written with an economist's brain and a soccer writer's skill, Soccernomics applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday soccer topics

Soccernomics is a revolutionary new way of looking at soccer that has helped to change the way the sport is played. This World Cup edition features ample new material, including a chapter on women’s soccer that makes a case for reparations, an analysis of the pandemic’s impact on soccer finances, and insights into the failed plan to create a European Super League. Soccernomics remains essential reading for anyone in search of a more strategic, systematic perspective on the game, answering the questions that most consume soccer fans. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645030171
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	10/18/2022
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Simon Kuper is one of the world's leading writers on soccer. The winner of the William Hill Prize for sports book of the year in Britain, Kuper writes a weekly column for the Financial Times. He lives in Paris, France.

Stefan Szymanski is the Stephen J. Galetti Collegiate Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan's School of Kinesiology. Tim Harford has called him "one of the world's leading sports economists." He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Table of Contents

1 Driving with a Dashboard: In Search of New Truths About Soccer 1

Part I The Clubs

Racism, Stupidity, Bad Transfers, Capital Cities, the Leicester Fairy Tale, and What Actually Happened in That Penalty Shoot-Out in Moscow

2 Gentlemen Prefer Blonds: How to Avoid Silly Mistakes in the Transfer Market 13

3 The Worst Business in the World: Why Soccer Clubs Haven't Made Money 60

4 Safer Than the Bank of England: Why Soccer Clubs Almost Never Disappear 83

5 A Decent Business at Last? Be Careful What You Wish For 99

6 Super League: Why Rich People Don't Always Get What They Want 111

7 Unbanned: The Case for Reparations for Women's Soccer 118

8 Need Not Apply: Does Soccer Discriminate Against Black People? 130

9 Do Coaches Matter? The Cult of the White Manager 146

10 Isaac Newton, Liverpool, and the Moneyball of Soccer: Have Data Analytics Transformed the Game? 168

11 The Economist's Fear of the Penalty Kick: Are Penalties Cosmically Unfair, or Only If You Are Nicolas Anelka? 186

12 The Suburban Newsagents: City Sizes and Soccer Prizes 203

Part II The Fans

Loyalty, Suicides, and Happiness

13 A Fan's Suicide Notes: Do People Jump Off Buildings When Their Teams Lose? 227

14 Happiness: Why Hosting a World Cup Is Good for You 241

15 Football Versus Football: A Tale of Two Empires 264

16 Are Soccer Fans Polygamists? A Critique of the Nick Hornby Model of Fandom 290

Part III Countries

Rich and Poor, Tom Thumb, England, Spain, Palestine, and the Champions of the Future

17 The Curse of Poverty: Why Poor Countries Are Poor at Sports 311

18 Core Beats Periphery: Why Little Western Europe Rules International Soccer 331

19 Why England Still Loses-But Nowadays Only Just 360

20 Tom Thumb: The Best Little Soccer Country on Earth 389

21 The Future: The Best of Times-and the Streaming Service 407

Acknowledgments 413

Notes 415

Select Bibliography 417

Index 425

Editorial Reviews

"[Kuper and Szymanski] do for soccer what Moneyball did for baseball—put the game under an analytical microscope using statistics, economics, psychology, and intuition to try to transform a dogmatic sport."—New York Times

"With Soccernomics, the FT's indispensable Simon Kuper and top-flight sports economist Stefan Szymanski bring scrupulous economic analysis and statistical rigor to a sport long dependent on hoary—and, it seems, unfounded—assumptions. . . . Gripping and essential."
—Slate.com, Best Books of the Year

"[Szymanski and Kuper] entertainingly demolish soccer shibboleths. . . . Well argued and clear-headed."
—Financial Times, Best Books of the Year

"[Soccernomics] is a sporting tale in the Freakonomics mode of inquiry, using statistics to come up with fascinating conclusions."
—Independent (UK), Best Books of the Year

"Soccernomics is the most intelligent book ever written about soccer."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Using data analysis, history and psychology, [Soccernomics] punctures dozens of clichés about what it takes to win, and who makes money in soccer—and in sports in general."
—Associated Press

"Since the publication of the first edition of Soccernomics there have been several attempts to copy its content. Yet few authors in the world of soccer writing can tell a human story like Simon Kuper, and even fewer academics can write an understandable narrative with numbers like Stefan Szymanski. Together the two men raise the bar again, bringing new insights to an already great body of work that is accessible and interesting to the quant and casual reader alike. . . . I highly recommend you pick it up for yourself, even if you have already read the first edition. You will not be disappointed."
—Zach Slaton, Forbes

"Fascinating."
—VanityFair.com

"Soccernomics [is] a sharply written and provocative examination of the world's game seen through the prism of economics and statistical data. It demolishes almost everything that most soccer fans believe about the game and how professional soccer teams should operate."
—Globe and Mail (Canada)

"Quite an entertaining read."
—Simply Futbol

"Wonderful book."
—Pro Soccer Talk (NBC Sports blog)

"Soccernomics . . . remains essential reading for anyone seeking an analytical take on the game."—Keeping Score (TIME Soccer Blog)

"The authors take what 'everybody' knows about success and failure in soccer and subject it to rigorous empirical analysis embedded in good stories that carry the narrative along. . . . Highly recommended."
—Choice

"Many explanations [of England's poor form] can be found in the book Soccernomics in a segment entitled 'Why England Loses.' (This is well worth a read for any English football fan; essentially, you overvalue your football heritage and undervalue the benefits of innovation.)"
—Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics, on the Freakonomics blog

"Oh, Rooney's the best. [My son] Ben thinks that England might be in the top four, but that's it. He knows the starting line up of every European team. We're reading this very interesting book about football together, you know Soccernomics."
—Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and Birds of America

From the Publisher