Soccernomics

Soccernomics
Simon Kuper

Stefan Szymanski

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 clichés about "The Magic of the FA Cup", "England's Shock Defeat" and "Newcastle's New South American Star".

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_0cceea5f-a8ad-5ad4-8d17-1f5accdd1844)

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers as Why England Lose in 2009

This revised and updated edition published 2018

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

© Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018

Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780008236649

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780007466887

Version: 2018-05-15

Find out more about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

CONTENTS

Cover (#ub99e4898-bb39-536f-86b5-53e7a2ea7929)

Title Page (#uef77b427-79f7-51ba-ae9b-2d020c20fdc5)

Copyright (#ulink_b859e3b2-2207-5409-8851-0fbfe50552ec)

1 Driving with a Dashboard: In Search of New Truths about Football (#ulink_04823723-37ce-5ee2-ba67-13bdc301c0f3)

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 (#ulink_24952b4f-5962-557e-b454-e77b8c4facf9)

2 Gentlemen Prefer Blonds: How to Avoid Silly Mistakes in the Transfer Market (#ulink_208f21f0-e74d-5cb0-a4ff-3c687feb6522)

3 The Worst Business in the World: Why Football Clubs Haven’t Made Money (#ulink_e7f3433f-c8a9-50d2-b2c2-4602cf0c6607)

4 Safer than the Bank of England: Why Football Clubs Almost Never Disappear (#ulink_62937bad-0e3b-5140-b959-8a417df9a860)

5 Crooked Business: Football’s Corruption and the History of Tech (#ulink_141418ee-b9fc-593b-8a83-41181079f56d)

6 A Decent Business at Last? Be Careful What You Wish For (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Need Not Apply: Does Football Discriminate Against Black People? (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Do Coaches Matter? The Cult of the White Manager (#litres_trial_promo)

9 The Secret of Claude Makelele: How ‘Match Data’ Are Changing the Game on the Pitch (#litres_trial_promo)

10 The Economist’s Fear of the Penalty Kick: Are Penalties Cosmically Unfair, or Only if You Are Nicolas Anelka? (#litres_trial_promo)

11 The Suburban Newsagent’s: City Sizes and Football Prizes (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Unfair and Unbalanced: Do We Need More Leicesters? (#litres_trial_promo)

PART II: THE FANS: LOYALTY, SUICIDES AND HAPPINESS (#litres_trial_promo)

13 Are Football Fans Polygamists? A Critique of the Nick Hornby Model of Fandom (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Fans’ Suicide Notes: Do People Jump off Buildings when Their Teams Lose? (#litres_trial_promo)

15 Happiness: Why Hosting a World Cup Is Good for You (#litres_trial_promo)

PART III: COUNTRIES: RICH AND POOR, TOM THUMB, ENGLAND, SPAIN, PALESTINE AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE FUTURE (#litres_trial_promo)

16 The Curse of Poverty: Why Poor Countries Are Poor at Sport (#litres_trial_promo)

17 Why England Lose and Other Europeans Win (#litres_trial_promo)

18 Made in Amsterdam: The Rise of Spain and the Triumph of European Knowledge Networks (#litres_trial_promo)

19 Tom Thumb: The Best Little Football Country on Earth (#litres_trial_promo)

20 Core to Periphery: The Future Map of Global Football (#litres_trial_promo)

21 The Future: The Best of Times – and the Smartphone (#litres_trial_promo)

Footnotes (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)