Football Economics: Why does England always lose?

Why do England always lose in World Series? Why is Scotland always so annoying? Why does Germany always play football in a very mechanical but efficient way? Why can't the United States dominate world football? ——How can it be done? Which is the strongest football country in the world? Which country has the most passionate football fans? What impact does football have on suicide rates? Which sport will dominate? Why do the people who run football clubs behave so stupidly? These are questions every football fan might ask, and the book Football Economics provides the answers. This book uses the wisdom of an economist and the skills of a sports writer to highly analyze football topics in daily life, re-examine the data, reveal the facts that are completely contrary to intuitive thinking in this most beloved sport in the world, and summarize Developing a groundbreaking way of looking at football that will have a profound impact on world football. About the author Simon Cooper is the world's best-known football commentary writer. His book Football Against the Enemies won the William Hill Award for the UK's Sports Book of the Year. He has a weekly sports column in the Financial Times. He now lives in Paris. Stephen Szymanski is Dean and Professor of Economics at Cass Business School in London. British "Financial Times" columnist Tim Harford once called him "the world's most famous sports economist." Szymanski now lives in London. Playing football from the perspective of economics. Just like when Huang Jianxiang and Li Chengpeng explained the European Cup through the Internet, it was difficult to get rid of the habit of "disgusting" the Chinese men's football team. After seeing this book "", we It is also easy to make associations - if its authors Simon Cooper and Stephen Szymanski were born in China and wrote based on the analysis of the Chinese men's football team and the Chinese Super League, I am afraid it would have to be called "Betting Economics" "", "Why Chinese men's football players always engage in match-fixing" and other texts will not be beneficial to people's ability to combine economics, modern football and its business development to enhance understanding of laws and improve the efficiency of each aspect. There are pitfalls in transfers. For fans of the Premier League and big-name teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool, "" provides fans with a perceptual and emotional perspective, breaking through a single game, a season, and a certain football team. Team restrictions, full data analysis from the perspective of European football over several years and decades. When it comes to data analysis, many people may worry about the readability of written texts. Please rest assured that Simon Cooper and Stephen Szymanski are not that dogmatic. The overall perspective and data analysis methods they adopt in the book serve and are subordinate to the interest of the discussion. For example, the third chapter of the book, "Gentlemen prefer people with fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes", analyzes the data of the transfer market of the English Professional League and explores how various clubs, including Manchester United's giants, are buying new players. The "mistake patterns" of players include the purge of players by the new head coach (selling the old team at a low price, buying parallel imports or big-name players who have passed their prime at high prices), overvaluation of new stars in the World Cup or European Championship, Brazil, etc. National players are overvalued, and blond players are more favored by club owners. Correspondingly, there are also exceptional examples of operations that go against the rules, such as Clough and Taylor, the legendary coaching staff of Nottingham Forest. They discovered several rules for buying at low prices, selling at high prices, and managing players as steadily as any scarce commodity. In fact, In the past ten years, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger's player management methods have inherited the experience of "Clough Taylor". Economics determines success or failure. "" tells us that from concept to practice, continuation and change in the football circle all follow the principles of economics. This helps fans and sports analysts have a more objective understanding of modern football and its commercial development.

For example: ——Why can the discrimination against black people in the English Professional Football League be completed in a short time and be reused, but Asian players cannot get this opportunity; ——The penalty shootout of major matches is not what people usually think of. If one side is "unfair", it will be more fair to the participating teams and players; - The shooters and goalkeepers on both sides of the penalty kick will be easier to play or block if they have data accumulation and analysis as a basis and understand game theory. Block opponents, unless the latter encounters Ribery, a French player of Bayern Munich club who completely ignores game theory and relies entirely on randomness; ——Since the development of modern professional football leagues, capital teams of European countries have won national leagues and the Champions League. There are very few opportunities for league championships. In contrast, provincial industrial cities formed in modern history often have top clubs; ——After the Bosman Act came into effect, many medium-sized and small cities in European countries have football clubs. Decline, championships, power and profits are increasingly concentrated in the hands of one or twenty wealthy teams; ... Why England always loses returns to the central issue mentioned in the title of the book, why the English football team's international competition results are always Not ideal? Simon Cooper and Stephen Szymanski were not swayed by the usual explanation logic of the British media, fans, and the Football Association. Instead, they summarized the data of several England team international competitions and pointed out: First, the general public from all walks of life in the UK It is an attempt to build up the England team's dream of winning the cup before the big game, but if it fails, you can immediately find out that "accidentally met the nemesis team (Germany, Argentina)", the referee did not help, and the provocation of the opposing player (such as 1998, The story of what happened after Beckham and Rooney were angered during the two World Cups in 2006) and other objective reasons. Secondly, (similar to the Chinese Football Association,) the level of selection of head coaches and coaching teams by the English Football Association is very low; thirdly, the influx of a large number of foreign players in the Premier League has had an impact on the jobs of local English players, but it also depends on Because of this, local players in England can cope with fierce competition for a long time. The only negative impact this has on the England team's performance in major competitions is that players are forced to adjust their level to the highest level every week, and their nerves and physical condition are strained. In intercontinental competitions and major competitions, it is easy for players to suffer from poor condition - inversely. In the past, most of the players who performed "outstanding" in intercontinental competitions were not able to adapt to the competitive state of high-level professional leagues. Fourth, Britain has now become a middle-class country, but most of England's local players come from the bottom of society; outstanding young competitive talents from middle-class families are often unwilling to choose football; fifth, precisely because England players often Coming from the bottom of society, their cultural and educational level is relatively low, and it is more difficult to understand and implement tactics. In football matches, they rely more on their natural talents, which inevitably prevents them from using their brains to play football smartly, running around the field, and meaninglessly Instead of playing in an ugly, mechanical but very efficient way like Germany and Italy, they have excessive physical strength and concentration (most of their team's goals are scored in the first half). Sixth, coupled with the poor player transfer operations of various clubs in the English Professional League already listed above, it has worsened the growth environment for local players in England. Enlightenment for Chinese Football The last chapter of "From Core to Periphery: The Future Map of World Football" can be seen as a guide to the future development of Chinese football. In this chapter, Simon Cooper and Stephen Szymansky analyze the rise of several (originally very backward) emerging football countries such as Russia, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, and Greece, and find that these are all due to their opposition to each other. The introduction of European, especially Western European models. When it comes to this, naturally we cannot avoid Dutch football coach Hiddink. It can be said that it was Hiddink who reshaped the football development model of South Korea, Australia, Russia and other countries. He not only introduced Dutch football technology, tactics, player selection and training methods, but also brought into full play the three qualities of his previous head coaches. The original characteristics of a national team. Similarly, the rise of Turkish football also comes from the introduction of the German football model, and the same is true for Greece.

Of course, the reason why the "golden fingers" of Hiddink, Rehagel and others can work is that they can combine the Western European model, which represents the development law of modern football, with the characteristics of the host country, and then maximize the results of competitive matches. A premise that they seem to have completely ignored: the law, industry, and public opinion fully restrain fake gambling gangs.