Soccer is called “the beautiful game” due to its simplicity and popularity; unlike ice hockey or baseball, it can be played on a piece of dirt with nothing more than a bunch of rags. However, soccer, like any other human activity, reflects more on the people playing than a mere scorecard or trophy. Simon Kuper’s new book, Soccernomics, delves into the world of the most popular game on the planet to understand the trends, suggest the reasons for the current global hierarchy, and suggest the next nations to become superpowers in global competition.
Kuper starts with a simple question. Football in modern parlance began as association football between British clubs and universities. A working man’s game, it lacked the “gentlemanly” rules of cricket while emphasizing physical play and stamina over strategy and positioning. England therefore had a lead of up to a century and a half over some nations, but they have only one World Cup victory in the last hundred years. Why, Soccernomics asks, did the Titans fall?
The book delves into this topic. It was never a case, Kuper argues, of England underperforming but rather overperforming: the tiny island nation too small to support a large talent pool, too cold to sustain a year-long game and too insulated from competitors to forge improvements. He explores the financial decisions English clubs make and explains their poor performance time and time again.
The book also addresses the issue of soccer on the world circuit.
Economy and performance are linked throughout the text. Should big clubs sign big players for big money? Should an organization function as a business or as a model of success on the field? Can a franchise expect a hot player to repeat its success? Kuper often goes against conventional thinking, using rational examples of statistical trends rather than the subjectivity of fans and ownership.
Soccernomics emphasizes how different countries are about to explode. Nations such as England, France and Italy have a vast pool of talent and a history of success, but recent conquests by what were then considered inferior countries in football have shown that hegemony is crumbling. The rise of African countries and Asian powers like Japan and South Korea come to mind. Such surprises, Soccernomics claims, will surely be the norm rather than the exception in the sport’s near future.
For those with a passion for the beautiful game, Soccernomics is a brilliant and highly informative book to become part of anyone’s soccer book or literature collection.
2011 Moira G. Gallaga©