Self-growth
Business & Career
Success
Communication
Healing
Relationships
Psychology
HappinessYou’ll learn
- Why football is such a bad business
- The mistakes of top clubs and managers
- Why data is crucial for the game
- How big clubs never disappear
- Why female footballers should receive reparations
Table of contents
first KEY POINT
The real face of football
Football is the most popular and well-studied sport on the planet. Or is it? We all hear about the tons of money football players make; their star status worldwide can now overshadow the most famous movie stars. The World Cup is the Olympics of football, drawing in millions of fans to drop everything and travel to whatever corner of the world their national team is playing. You will be shocked to discover it hasn’t always been like that. Indeed, football has been a badly-run business with minimal revenue for most of its existence.Even though football enjoys its economic momentum, drawing in everyone from global fans to billionaires, there was little money in football until recent decades. Football clubs were never run like businesses, overlooking opportunities to earn more. So why is football always lagging behind?Like most sports, football cherishes tradition above all. But there is a difference between sticking to traditional ways of doing things and being stuck with them. Football relies on conventional beliefs, remaining a game run by men persuaded to do everything the way “it always was.” Overpaying mediocre players, hiring incompetent managers, and ignoring technology’s potential to help the game are just a few things holding football back.
Sports always reflect their time, so football should look its mistakes straight in the eye and rethink its approach to the game.
For the longest time, football refrained from studying data. Originally, sports statistics played a role in entertaining fans and selling newspapers. But in the era of big data, clubs have infinite information to analyze. Statistics are innovating the game and forcing people to go back and discover what’s been wrong with it all along. This tidbit will tell you more about the game’s biases that persist in the football culture and uncover common misconceptions that still guide the game.
second KEY POINT
The evil of football: transfer system, wages, and club’s mistakes
The traditional way is not necessarily the best — this is the lesson football should have learned a long time ago. Despite being incredibly popular, football remains a sport based on many harmful practices. The transfer system is one of the industry’s most common and accepted things. But when you detach from the football’s context, our authors describe it as a “modern human trafficking system,” where players often have no power over where they work. Many influential people decide what club a player works for and can prohibit changing “the job” for up to three years. Players become commodities that big clubs exchange, circulating the money between themselves. This practice allows agents and managers to steal and make illegal cash.Indeed, the transfer system carries no positive effect on game results. Statistics confirm that more significant transfer spendings rarely produce better game quality. For example, take Liverpool in the 2000s: high transfer fees did not improve their chances of winning. At the same time, increased wages for the players helped the club finish higher in the league. Higher pay doesn’t make players show better results, but it attracts better performers to the club.
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first KEY POINT
Football managers matter: traditional pressures and new approaches
second KEY POINT
Football: a bad business that will never disappear
third KEY POINT
A long history of football discrimination
fourth KEY POINT
How the game affects the fans
fifth KEY POINT
The football geography
sixth KEY POINT
Conclusion
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Frequently asked questions
What is Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose about?
Soccernomics, authored by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, delves into the economics of soccer, examining why European men's teams dominate while American women's teams flourish. The book analyzes data and trends, challenging common perceptions about success in football and exploring the implications for ownership and finance in the sport.
What are the key takeaways from Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose?
Key takeaways from Soccernomics include the importance of investment in youth development, the role of socioeconomic factors in sports success, and the differences in sports culture between men and women. The book also highlights how billionaire owners often misunderstand the complexities of soccer economics, leading to poor decision-making.
Is Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose worth reading?
Yes, Soccernomics is worth reading for anyone interested in understanding soccer beyond just the game. Its insightful analysis on the intersection of economics and sports makes it a compelling read for fans, investors, and scholars alike.
How many pages is Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose and when was it published?
Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition) spans approximately 288 pages and was published on July 12, 2022. This edition updates the original insights with the latest data and trends heading into the 2022 World Cup.
How does Soccernomics (2022 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Win and Billionaire Owners Are Destined to Lose explain the success of American women's soccer?
The book attributes the success of American women's soccer to strong investment in women's programs, equitable youth development, and cultural support for female athletes. This contrasts sharply with the male counterparts in many countries, revealing key insights into why American women excel on the global stage.