In this comprehensive Handbook, John Goddard and Peter Sloane present a collection of analytical contributions by internationally regarded scholars in the field, which extensively examine the many economic challenges facing the world's most popular
The second edition of this popular book presents a detailed economic analysis of professional football at club level, with new material included to reflect the development of the economics of professional football over the past ten years. Using a combination of economic reasoning and statistical and econometric analysis, the authors build upon the successes and strengths of the first edition to guide readers through the economic complexities and peculiarities of English club football. It uses a wide range of international comparisons to help emphasize both the broader relevance as well as the unique characteristics of the English experience. Topics covered include some of the most hotly debated issues currently surrounding professional football, including player salaries, the effects of management on team performance, betting on football, racial discrimination and the performance of football referees. This edition also features new chapters on the economics of international football, including the World Cup.
The sports agent has become a highly significant figure in contemporary sport business. The role of the agent is essential to our understanding of labour markets and labour relations in an increasingly globalised sports industry. Drawing on extensive empirical research into football around the world, this book explains what agents do, how their role has changed, and why this is important for future sport business. Offering analysis from economic, legal, social and historical perspectives, the book explores key topics such as: the history of sports agents including the emergence of the modern agent in US sport typologies and demographic profiles of agents in football valuations and organisational analysis of leading European agents and agencies relations between agents and clubs future directions for research into sports agents. Focusing on the major European leagues, this book goes further than any other in illuminating an important but under-researched aspect of contemporary sport business. It is a valuable resource for any student, researcher or policy-maker with an interest in sport business, sport management, sport policy, the economics of sport or labour economics.
Strategic Decision Making provides an effective, formal methodology that provides help with decision making problems, especially strategic ones with high stakes involving human perceptions and judgements. Focusing on applying the AHP to decision-making problems, Strategic Decision Making covers problems in the realms of business, defence and governance. Using case studies drawn from years of experience, the book discusses decision making for real life problems and includes many worked examples and solutions to problems throughout. The reader will gain comprehensive exposure to the extent of assistance that a formal methodology, such as AHP, can provide to the decision maker in evolving decisions in complex and varied domains.
This text uses statistical and documentary evidence to illustrate how football works as a business, and the techniques of business strategy to explain why some clubs are winners and others are not. After a historical description of football's finances, the book moves to a contemporary analysis of the state of the game financially. Embedded in the text are various analyses of the modern English game including a league table of major teams that compares success on the field with that off the field since the war.
This book presents accounts of economic and psychological analyses of association football (or “soccer” as it is popularly known in the USA). As football is widely accepted to be the world’s most popular sport, the case for scientific investigation of its characteristics is self-evident. As the contributions to this book demonstrate, the game of football offers an ideal opportunity to empirically investigate a wide range of broad issues, for example: behavioural decision-making; judgmental forecasting; motivation; game-theoretic models of strategic choice; competition and labour markets. Are teams more likely to concede a goal after having just scored? Does the team going first in a penalty shoot-out have an advantage? Should goal-keepers dive or stay put for penalty kicks? Do referees make decisions consistently? Why do fans like their teams? What factors influence the career of footballers? How well can experts predict football matches? How accurate are prediction markets? How does the stock-market react to match outcomes? These questions and others are addressed in this book. A particular focus is the investigation of popular conceptions—and misconceptions—about football. Of interest to psychologists, behavioural economists and football enthusiasts with an analytic approach to understanding the game, this book brings together contributions from a range of academic disciplines and will stimulate further research into football and the intriguing insights into behaviour it offers. See feature article in The Independent, October 8th, 2008: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/fact-or-fiction-form-in-football-954440.html Listen to interview with Patric Andersson on Swedish National Radio http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/P1/program/index.asp?ProgramID=1302 Read Chris Charles’s blog on BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrischarles/2008/10/lies_damned_lies_and_statictic.html
Sports Economics is the ideal introduction for all sport management and sport policy students and those for whom economics is a relatively new area of study. The book will also provide an ideal introduction to sports economics for economics students new to the area. Specifically designed to make economics accessible the context of sport is the focus of analysis, ensuring that this book is lively, accessible and approachable. The full scope of the sports economy is examined, covering the three main arenas in which sport takes place - mass participation, professional sports and sports events. The key elements of the economic representation of these three markets are considered, such as the underlying demand for and supply of these sports, together with the main policy issues affecting them Whilst truly international in scope, it focuses particularly on specific comparisons between the US, the UK and mainland Europe. The breadth of discussion and international emphasis is brought to life by a detailed discussion of the evidence throughout the book to illustrate the key themes discussed – ideal for both lecturer and student. Reflection questions and boxes are also used in chapters to prompt the reader to think about specific points as well as to provide the context for specific theoretical or empirical contributions that have been used to analyze sport.
Moneyball meets Freakonomics in this myth-busting guide to understanding—and winning—the most popular sport on the planet. Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the center of it all are the numbers—a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favor of how things actually are. In The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson, a former professional goalkeeper turned soccer statistics guru, teams up with behavioral analyst David Sally to uncover the numbers that really matter when it comes to predicting a winner. Investigating basic but profound questions—How valuable are corners? Which goal matters most? Is possession really nine-tenths of the law? How should a player’s value be judged?—they deliver an incisive, revolutionary new way of watching and understanding soccer.
The Routledge Handbook of Sport Management is the most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to theory and practice in sport management ever published. It provides students and scholars with a broad ranging survey of current thinking in contemporary sport management, exploring best practice in core functional areas and identifying important future directions for new research. Key topics covered in the book include: managing performance marketing human resource management the economics and finance of sport strategy managing change governance of sports organizations customer relations branding and retail. With contributions from leading scholars and professionals from around the world, the book illustrates the global nature of contemporary sport business and highlights the opportunities and challenges for managers operating in an international market place. Representing a definitive survey of contemporary issues in sport management, this is an essential reference for all students, scholars and practitioners working in sport.