Soccernomics, Part 2

Other topics discussed in the book:

-Running a football club as a business. Don’t.

-The role of blacks in management.

-How penalty kicks can be predicted.

-Future of club football may shift to big cities and how London may be an epicenter of success.

-The NFL vs the EPL. There’s room for both.
Comment made by authors:
The Detroit Lions have won less than 30 percent of
their games since millennium, a feat matched in England by Bradford City. The difference is that Bradford was relegated after its only season in EPL, whereas the Lions look to set to sustain their peculiar brand of misery unto eternity.

-Fans like Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch are the minority.

-Football may not actually lead to suicide but may actually save lives.

-The World Cup and Olympics don’t make the host countries richer. Just happier.

-Norway is the world champion of sports, if you take performances at main events (World Cups Olympics) and divide it by population.

-What are the most important factors in a countries performance:
Population
Wealth
Diet
Exposure
Experience
Organization

-The story of Guus Hiddink: soccer missionary. From Holland to Turkey to Spain to South Korea to Australia to Russia.

-The periphery of soccer (countries not included in Western Europe and South America) will take over.
Tips for the next soccer powers:
Iraq
US
China
Japan


The book ends with the following statement: in the new world, distance no longer separates a country from the best soccer. Only poverty does.