Money and Football: A Soccernomics Guide

by Stefan Szymanski

Modern soccer is big business. From the ill-received takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family to Paris Saint Germain’s current shopping spree for the best footballers on the planet, soccer finance has become an increasingly important part of the game.

Barely a summer goes by now without a cherished club going into administration or a wealthy businessman funding a mid table team’s ascension to Champions League competitor. Meanwhile, the twice-annual multi-million dollar merry-go-round of transfer season sees players (and now managers) signed for sums thought impossible just a decade ago. Understanding soccer finance has become essential for comprehending the beautiful game. But for many fans, soccer finance remains, frustratingly, a world that is opaque and difficult to grasp.

Stefan Szymanski, co-author of the bestselling Soccernomics, tackles every soccer fan’s burning questions in Money and Soccer: A Soccernomics Guide. From the abolition of the maximum wage in the 1960s, through to the impact of TV money both at home and abroad in the 1990s and 2000s, Szymanski explains how money, or lack of, affects your favorite club. Drawing on extensive research into financial records dating back to the 1970s, Szymanski provides clear analysis of the way that clubs have transformed in the modern era.

This book isn’t limited to European clubs. Szymanski, a renowned expert on sports management and economics, looks at what we can learn from comparing the ascension of Europe’s biggest clubs to their lofty perches and with new financial models across the world. Through careful research and informative stories drawn from around the globe, Szymanski provides an accessible guide to the world of soccer finance.

Genres: Sports, Football, Soccer, Nonfiction, Economics, Finance, Business

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 2, 2015

About the author

Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan. I am an economist whose research is focused on the business and economics of sports, as well as their culture and history. I write books to reach a wider audience than is feasible through the peer-reviewed academic papers that have been the mainstay of my career. I also write occasionally for the Soccernomics blog and tweet from time to time from @ssz.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered how the Gini coefficient of La Liga and the EPL compare? If so Soccer and Money (2015) by Stefan Szymanski is definitely the book for you. If you're interested in soccer and economic data there is loads in the book about the domination of leagues by particular teams, how teams become insolvent and disappear and how this compares to normal companies and many other topics related to how sport is organised.

There are chapters on players and squad value, stadiums and revenue, debt, ownership of the big clubs, strategy of ownership, Insolvency, how soccer compares to US sport and regulation of budgets of clubs.

The book points out how dominance of a few clubs exists even in tiny poor leagues and how even prior to the massive increase in money due to pay TV revenues in soccer since the 1980s there was dominance of a few clubs in most leagues. Szymanski points out that revenue and player pay is very closely related to league position and how 'moneyballing' soccer is very difficult. He also points out that salary caps wouldn't work in Europe and that league mergers between the Dutch and Belgian leagues and Scandinavian leagues would make financial sense.

For anyone interested in economics and sport the book is a great read. There is lots of data and lots of interesting insights that have been obtained from the data that are well worth thinking about.

[Jake Grogin]

I did research for this book as an undergraduate, and he thanks some of his researchers in the acknowledgments but not me lol

[Kunal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Eye opener in many ways. While it all looks easy for someone with Resources to own a club, apparently it's not.

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the business aspects of football, accessible both for football fans trying to learn some finance and people with financial notions trying to learn more about the football market. Since data for other leagues is hard to come by, the book focuses on the Premier League, occasionally presenting comparisons with the Champions League clubs and USA sports; that, of course, results on a narrower scope and weakens some conclusions, but here we have many solid claims about the sport and the relevance of the financial aspects of football.

[Agung Wicaksono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sepak bola pada zaman modern ini bukanlah sebagai olahraga biasa, tetapi juga menjadi industri tersendiri bagi para pemilik modal. Bagi klub yang memiliki banyak uang, kemungkinan besar untuk mendapatkan trofi dan bertahan di liga utama sangatlah mudah. Sebab, mereka bisa membeli pemain kelas dunia dan menggaji mereka dengan nominal yang tinggi. Lebih lanjut, ulasan singkatnya saya tulis di sini:
https://www.agungwicaks.com/2021/03/m...

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Book. It changed my perspective on promotion and relegation as a good idea and had some interesting modelling on player wages vs league position in the long term amongst other topics.

A real financial perspective on the game which is often overlooked when assessing professional football teams from the outside.

[Vivek Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focuses on the comparison between business corporations and football clubs and succeeds in doing so. The reading becomes boring at times with some redundant information repackaged and presented at many junctures.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Builds a solid story based on accepted available data. Gets a bit repetitious as he stresses his points. Some of the charts are missing keys to data and most are missing axis labels, which you can only glean from title of table.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to understand how world club soccer works, this will help. Could be a bit of a snooze at times though.

[Jacob Vorstrup Goldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing is terse, but very worthwhile book on the economics of football.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, but a bit redundant at times.

[Dhanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a football fan, we ought to think we knew it all about it. But this book clearly gives us an economic perspective of how football world works. A bit tricky to read but highly recommended.

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice summer read introduction to the current business model of football clubs. The author cohesively intermingles history with economics. Quick read because of his storytelling.

[Paul McCormack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very heavy going

[Daniel Sanchez Ojalvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its ok. Its a decent “sequel” to soccernomics. Please make sure you read that one first before this one

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and comprehensive overview of the link between soccer and economics! - especially for someone not very knowledgeable about the sport. This will be very useful in my research!

[Malekath · Rating 1 out of 5]

God, I am so far from finishing it yet, but I have no doubts about the rating already. I will definitely pick an idea or two (or maybe more) from its pages, which is wonderful. However I absolutely hate this style of constant interruptions,
This book doesn't require any knowledge of football by the way, you will be told everything in process.
because it feels like unnecessary and annoying multitasking.

EDIT: alright, I've finished and it was the worst book I've read this year (mind you, it's almost August). Don't get me wrong, it could make a great article or two. As a book though it was about enduring an extremely boring person, that was repeating the same over and over again in a language as dull as possible. An ideal book for services that provide the essence in 10 minutes.

As a generous person, I almost gave the book two stars, because author's point of view was of interest to me. Still, in the end I didn't like how far the author was from understanding the game of football itself (and not its economics). I'm not sure that the understanding would make the book much better; but less irritating, indeed.

[Marty Greenwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to know about the background of soccer. I did not read Soccernomics earlier but this book was great. It really explained why Man U, Real Madrid, Barcelona are at the top. Really good read as how the money makes the team: it always has.

[Étienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for anyone that has interest in Sports Management/finance and especially Football. Szymanski is an expert in the subject and it helped me a lot in writing my dissertation.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most people won't like this book, because it's pretty academic, with limited anecdotes. But I found it an interesting look at the different aspects of running soccer as a business. Most interesting is the fact that the forces that help the big clubs dominate are ALSO the forces that mean smaller clubs can move up (even if they're very very unlikely to move up to that elite tier, with out a sugar daddy).

Definitely increased my understanding of the business of soccer.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating study on the interrelation of cash and footy. This one won't shatter conventional wisdom nearly as thoroughly as Soccernomics. But it definitely follows in the vein. If you're interested in football finance, you should read this. If you're looking for the author to say he hates the influence of money in sports, expect to be disappointed.

[Paul Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough look at the relationship between money and success in soccer, and how each drives the other. Much of the data is intuitive, but it's good to have perception backed up by fact. If you're interested in the business side of global soccer, you'll like it. Casual fans may find it dry.

[Daniel Waymark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for anyone who loves data, this book has some interesting findings on 'financial fair play' in Football, peeking behind the curtain of the day-to-day operations of football clubs (both large and small) and explains why some clubs are limited to lower-tier mediocrity.

[Serbulent Sengun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, relevant, data-based, interesting and full of valid, plausible ideas. If you are interested in the economic aspect of soccer, I would call this a must read; most like any other book S.Szymanski wrote or co-wrote.

[Emanuel Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Soccernomics so I had high hopes for this one, but this was way too dry for me. Lots of graphs. Lots of economics jargon. Not the most accessible book on soccer.

[Mark Hillick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly well-researched and thorough. I've never come close to reading such a detailed analysis of the economics of football.

[Matt Rigsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were fascinating, other parts would have been more interesting if I paid attention in Econ class.