Soccernomics - Softcover

Simon Kuper; Stefan Szymanski

3.95

18,506 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007457847 ISBN 13: 9780007457847

Publisher: HarperSport, 2012

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

At last, football has its answer to Freakonomics, The Tipping Point and The Undercover Economist.

Why do England lose?
Why do Germany & Brazil Win?
How have Spain conquered the World?
"Penalties - what are they good for?"
What is the price on achieving success and the true cost of failure?

These are questions every football fan has asked. Soccernomics (previously published as Why England Lose) answers them. Written with an economist's brain and a football writer's skill, it applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday football topics.

Soccernomics isn't in the first place about money. It's about looking at data in new ways. It's about revealing counterintuitive truths about football. It explains all manner of things about the game which newspapers just can't see. It all adds up to a new way of looking at football, beyond clich�s about "The Magic of the FA Cup", "England's Shock Defeat" and "Newcastle's New South American Star".

No training in economics is needed to read Soccernomics but the reader will come out of it with a better understanding not just of football, but of how economists think and what they know.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

'An Ars�ne Wenger of a book more thoughtful than most of its rivals and, by football standards, positively intellectual.' --The Times

'...the author Simon Kuper and the economist Stefan Szymanski do for soccer what "Moneyball" did for baseball.' --New York Times

'Every page engages, entertains and challenges the lazy assumptions that still dominate football, not merely in its punditry, but all too often in the way that clubs are run.' --FourFourTwo

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 clich� 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 title" may belong to another edition of this title.