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tbueno's review against another edition
3.0
I like the way it mixes economics with soccer, gathering tons of data and reveling unexpected facts about Football.
I gave it a 3 stars because it is too England centered. I understand that the authors are more familiar with UK clubs and it is easier to get statistical data about Britain football, but it lacks a world context in a lot of the explanations.
Is that possible write about football without barely mention Brazil? A lot of the ideas described in the book simply don't apply to other countries. Use geographic/political context to explain how a nation is better that another in Europe may make sense, but it doesn't apply to countries like Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and even US.
I gave it a 3 stars because it is too England centered. I understand that the authors are more familiar with UK clubs and it is easier to get statistical data about Britain football, but it lacks a world context in a lot of the explanations.
Is that possible write about football without barely mention Brazil? A lot of the ideas described in the book simply don't apply to other countries. Use geographic/political context to explain how a nation is better that another in Europe may make sense, but it doesn't apply to countries like Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and even US.
tucholsky's review against another edition
1.0
Factually true most of the time but it misses the point so often. It goes without saying that the authors consider the economic wellbeing of entities like clubs to be paramount and that data can be used to increase small parts of success to work towards the eventual goal. No serious in depth consideration given to the perpetuation of dominance by several clubs or premier league clubs by awarding themselves greater share of the money
mattycakesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty solid. It's basically what you'd expect: like Moneyball or Freakonomics but with soccer. There are a few chapters that are significantly more interesting than the others - the chapter on the correlation between sporting losses and suicides is particularly interesting, as is the chapter on whether or not World Cups are beneficial for the host countries - but overall, pretty interesting.
It's part of this growing trend to introduce big data to everything, and while I think the trend in general is a good thing, I also feel the need to point out that while economists are very good at making quantitative judgments - showing, for example, that communities don't actually recoup their investments from stadiums - they aren't as good at making qualitative, moral judgments. Not that I think anything the writers of Soccernomics (this comment is aimed as much at Freakonomics as it is at this book) suggest is blatantly immoral, but economics is an amoral field, and while it does a great job at shattering myths and misconceptions, economics can only really serve as a starting point for debating the morality of a situation. Data isn't a moral entity, it's just data, and efficiency in itself isn't necessarily a moral concept.
It's part of this growing trend to introduce big data to everything, and while I think the trend in general is a good thing, I also feel the need to point out that while economists are very good at making quantitative judgments - showing, for example, that communities don't actually recoup their investments from stadiums - they aren't as good at making qualitative, moral judgments. Not that I think anything the writers of Soccernomics (this comment is aimed as much at Freakonomics as it is at this book) suggest is blatantly immoral, but economics is an amoral field, and while it does a great job at shattering myths and misconceptions, economics can only really serve as a starting point for debating the morality of a situation. Data isn't a moral entity, it's just data, and efficiency in itself isn't necessarily a moral concept.
robthereader's review against another edition
4.0
Soccernomics with its title and writing combines probably my two favorite reading subjects, soccer and economics. In terms of non-book related reading, I probably spend a hour or two a week consuming the different melodramas that revolve around the global game as well as the business of it (I know maybe not the best use of time but hardly the worst vice). Taking that into account, I had high hopes for this after stashing it in my shelf for sometime. In the end and after finishing it, I was left with a mixed sense of both fulfillment and disappointment that had me teetering in giving this a three star rating before bumping it up to four in reflection that there were several insightful chapters with experts in the fields of soccer, economics and data science and I read it in a few quick spurts.
Starting with the issues of the work, one can not ignore, however unfair it may be, that a good chunk of its information is now dated, seven years later even not accounting for the global economic turning on its head event of the Covid 19 pandemic. There are chapters dedicated to Barcelona’s prolific academy (once a true romantic story, now much less so with the background politics and mismanagement) and soccer clubs never disappearing (one of the 94 teams in the fabled english soccer system closed before Covid with another two coming close afterwards) to name two shortsighted inspections. There is also a weird proclivity to tout Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM of Moneyball fame, as if it was a buff piece for how his insights are now a main driver in soccer recruitment (Doubtful as buying low and selling high has been the merchant’s game for millennia). Finally, their megadata studies seem faulty in their sources and methods which to their credit, they acknowledge most of the time.
Brushing this all aside, Simon and Steven do a great job of interviewing some of the game’s top brains and using megadata sets focused on individual countries and clubs. Highlights include their chapter dedicated to the luck or rather better defined odds of penalty taking, the importance of coaches or rather lack there of and how to research and prove of discrimination in the workplace against PoCs through wage variation versus performance. Their hot takes beat plenty of prominent sportswriters and armchair analysts to the punchline in predicting the sealed off upper echelon through UEFA’s financial fair play, the celebration of Iceland’s fandom and intuition to create soccer ability from such a small population and the flooding of soccer with superfluous data. They do a remarkable job in detaching themselves from the economics train of thought of Markets, Markets, Markets and GDP to explore the real reason sport benefits society, general happiness. They even go through the math, again not using the most directly corresponding data sets, to prove this.
Finally, they probably make their biggest statement on what relates the game and business of soccer to economics, the use of internationalism and free trade to continuously improve. Whether that is through the importation of the world’s best players to the Premier league or the exportation of the game and then central Europe’s cosmopolitan tactics to the edges of the world, soccer truly is the world’s game. They predict that this trend will lead to the rise of new world soccer powers in the far east and the US at the expense of traditional middleweights who have less room for growth. In an era where leaders are waging trade wars, borders are closing and idea exchange is challenged with the new normal of telecommuting, one must not forget that change and the rate of change only improve when novel and scientific ideas are encouraged to be spread, debated and accepted. If that is kept in mind, maybe Simon and Stefan will be proven right and the US can win a world cup in the next 50 years.
Starting with the issues of the work, one can not ignore, however unfair it may be, that a good chunk of its information is now dated, seven years later even not accounting for the global economic turning on its head event of the Covid 19 pandemic. There are chapters dedicated to Barcelona’s prolific academy (once a true romantic story, now much less so with the background politics and mismanagement) and soccer clubs never disappearing (one of the 94 teams in the fabled english soccer system closed before Covid with another two coming close afterwards) to name two shortsighted inspections. There is also a weird proclivity to tout Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM of Moneyball fame, as if it was a buff piece for how his insights are now a main driver in soccer recruitment (Doubtful as buying low and selling high has been the merchant’s game for millennia). Finally, their megadata studies seem faulty in their sources and methods which to their credit, they acknowledge most of the time.
Brushing this all aside, Simon and Steven do a great job of interviewing some of the game’s top brains and using megadata sets focused on individual countries and clubs. Highlights include their chapter dedicated to the luck or rather better defined odds of penalty taking, the importance of coaches or rather lack there of and how to research and prove of discrimination in the workplace against PoCs through wage variation versus performance. Their hot takes beat plenty of prominent sportswriters and armchair analysts to the punchline in predicting the sealed off upper echelon through UEFA’s financial fair play, the celebration of Iceland’s fandom and intuition to create soccer ability from such a small population and the flooding of soccer with superfluous data. They do a remarkable job in detaching themselves from the economics train of thought of Markets, Markets, Markets and GDP to explore the real reason sport benefits society, general happiness. They even go through the math, again not using the most directly corresponding data sets, to prove this.
Finally, they probably make their biggest statement on what relates the game and business of soccer to economics, the use of internationalism and free trade to continuously improve. Whether that is through the importation of the world’s best players to the Premier league or the exportation of the game and then central Europe’s cosmopolitan tactics to the edges of the world, soccer truly is the world’s game. They predict that this trend will lead to the rise of new world soccer powers in the far east and the US at the expense of traditional middleweights who have less room for growth. In an era where leaders are waging trade wars, borders are closing and idea exchange is challenged with the new normal of telecommuting, one must not forget that change and the rate of change only improve when novel and scientific ideas are encouraged to be spread, debated and accepted. If that is kept in mind, maybe Simon and Stefan will be proven right and the US can win a world cup in the next 50 years.
vyorgov's review against another edition
5.0
Soccernomics is one of the defining football books of the past 20 years— for many fans this was the introduction to statistics as a tool to understand the sport. Change may have been slow to come but this book is widely seen as football’s Moneyball. Some of the claims are either outdated or incorrect— later editions to attempt to correct errors— and Kuper and Szymanski do write with a fairly snide tone, but the core of this book is paradigm shifting.
adamrbrooks's review against another edition
4.0
This is as much an introduction to economic thinking as it is to soccer. But it was interesting, and I highlighted the heck out of it (though because I read it on Kindle and not iBooks, it's harder to look back at my notes. iBooks is better).
An interesting stat that I wish were easier to track is how a team under/overperforms against expectations based on where matches are, experiences, GDP, size, etc. (Hint: US is a big underachiever).
Also very interesting to note how the network of soccer expertise played a big role in how countries developed.
The only criticism I might make is that the book assumes that the current "core European" style of play that is dominant will always be dominant. It may be, but it may be that a change in that core will lead to a change elsewhere. The game is always evolving. Though technology probably allows those changes to come more quickly to the whole world.
An early chapter also discusses how a manager is not as important as the structure (and wealth) of a club. Which is true; however they don't really tie that to international soccer, where I would presume managers DO have more influence (and that's probably why the last, glowing chapter is on Guus Hiddink).
An interesting stat that I wish were easier to track is how a team under/overperforms against expectations based on where matches are, experiences, GDP, size, etc. (Hint: US is a big underachiever).
Also very interesting to note how the network of soccer expertise played a big role in how countries developed.
The only criticism I might make is that the book assumes that the current "core European" style of play that is dominant will always be dominant. It may be, but it may be that a change in that core will lead to a change elsewhere. The game is always evolving. Though technology probably allows those changes to come more quickly to the whole world.
An early chapter also discusses how a manager is not as important as the structure (and wealth) of a club. Which is true; however they don't really tie that to international soccer, where I would presume managers DO have more influence (and that's probably why the last, glowing chapter is on Guus Hiddink).
andyirwin89's review against another edition
4.25
'Soccernomics' is a pleasure to read from start to finish. Insightful and informative, it is essential reading for anyone who studies the game and demands a certain level of intellectual rigour in the research and the presentation.
The section examining institutional racism in football is particularly strong, and the authors challenge longstanding assumptions in the game that managers must come from the stock of former professional players. It asks why women can't hold top coaching and managing positions in the professional men's game, or why managers need to have played professionally at all.
It also examines why clubs fail and succeed based on their geography, and the data in the section on international teams' success creates plenty of room for discussion. While the authors do not take into account factors such as the average age of international squads or the number of players playing in major national leagues or intra-continental competitions, it does use data effectively to dispel myths and lazy conventional analysis.
'Soccernomics' is the state-of-the-art work in its field, presenting complex data in an accessible way and begging for greater innovation and insight within the world's most televised, lucrative professional sport.
The section examining institutional racism in football is particularly strong, and the authors challenge longstanding assumptions in the game that managers must come from the stock of former professional players. It asks why women can't hold top coaching and managing positions in the professional men's game, or why managers need to have played professionally at all.
It also examines why clubs fail and succeed based on their geography, and the data in the section on international teams' success creates plenty of room for discussion. While the authors do not take into account factors such as the average age of international squads or the number of players playing in major national leagues or intra-continental competitions, it does use data effectively to dispel myths and lazy conventional analysis.
'Soccernomics' is the state-of-the-art work in its field, presenting complex data in an accessible way and begging for greater innovation and insight within the world's most televised, lucrative professional sport.
beans_init's review against another edition
5.0
Very insightful on a lot of the problems with the finances of football.