Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and Why the US, Japan, Australia - and Even Iraq - Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport - Softcover

Kuper, Simon; Szymanski, Stefan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568584814 ISBN 13: 9781568584812

Publisher: Nation Books, 2014

Synopsis

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Guardian, Slate, Financial Times, Independent (UK), and Bloomberg News "Soccernomics" pioneers a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous, empirical analysis and incisive, witty commentary. The San Francisco Chronicle describes it as the most intelligent book ever written about soccer. This World Cup edition features new material, including a provocative examination of how soccer clubs might actually start making profits, why that s undesirable, and how soccer s never had it so good."

About this title

Review:

"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, co-author Freakonomics on the Freakonomics blog

"Fascinating."
--VanityFair.com

"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. All readers."
--Choice

"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 & Mail (Canada)

"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

"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 (online)

"[Q]uite an entertaining read."
--Simply Futbol

"[W]onderful 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)

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

"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 2009

"[The book] is a sporting tale in the Freakonomics mode of inquiry, using statistics to come up with fascinating conclusions."
--Independent (UK), Best Books of 2009

"[Szymanski and Kuper] entertainingly demolish soccer shibboleths...Well argued and clear headed."
--Financial Times, Best Books of 2009

"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

"[Kuper and Szymanksi] 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

"[A] must read for any fan of the business of soccer..."
--Footiebusiness.com

From the Back Cover:

‘Compulsive reading’
Daily Telegraph

Does hosting a sports tournament make people happier?
Which country has the most passionate fans?
Is English football racist?
Can football really save lives?

Football truly is the world game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people who each pour their heart and soul into supporting their team every week.

But now an economist and sportswriter have joined forces to bypass the heart and soul and apply their heads to the game, testing the received wisdom and challenging the assumptions of a sport that is quite literally a matter of life and death for some. Forget what you know about football and prepare to question every aspect of the culture surrounding the Beautiful Game.

Soccernomics is the fully revised and updated edition of Why England Lose, with new chapters on football finances and the rise of Spain as the pre-eminent team of our times. Using hard fact and statistics to cut through emotive cliché and outmoded thinking, Soccernomics not only sheds light upon football, it illuminates much about the world we live in now.

‘Takes the breath away’
FourFourTwo

‘More thoughtful than most of its rivals and, by football standards, positively intellectual.’
The Times

‘Freakonomics for football’
Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Nation Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1568584814
• ISBN 13: 9781568584812
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 447