The Economics of Football

Abstract

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.

Staring into the abyss? The state of UK rugby's Super League

“…Comparisons between the economic environment of professional team sports and that of more traditional commercial businesses have been well documented by sports economists (e.g. Dobson and Goddard, 2011;Leach and Szymanski, 2015). Professional team sports are intrinsically different from other businesses, in which a firm is likely to prosper if it can eliminate competition and establish a position as a monopoly supplier (Dobson and Goddard, 2011).…”

“…Dobson and Goddard, 2011;Leach and Szymanski, 2015). Professional team sports are intrinsically different from other businesses, in which a firm is likely to prosper if it can eliminate competition and establish a position as a monopoly supplier (Dobson and Goddard, 2011). In sport, however, it does not pay for one team to establish such a position due to the joint nature of 'production' in sports.…”

“…However, Szymanski and Zimbalist (2005) contrast the development of baseball and soccer, with the latter spreading throughout the world, first under the influence of British expatriates and then by local elites, whereas baseball was much more inward looking and concerned with commercial development. Previous literature has argued that profit maximisation is the prime objective of North American leagues and team owners, so profitability is the main factor influencing decisions concerning the award of franchises and relocation (Dobson and Goddard, 2011). Contrastingly, other authors have suggested that the European sports model is more closely related to utility or 'win' maximisation (see Sloane, 1971;Kesenne, 2000;Garcia-del-Barro and Szymanski, 2006).…”

Ordinal versus nominal regression models and the problem of correctly predicting draws in soccer

“…Kuypers (2000) argued that ordinal regression makes sense, since match outcomes are naturally ordered, and therefore did not test any nonordered regression models. Ordered regression models have later been used for prediction of match results by Koning (2000), Forrest and Simmons (2000), Dobson and Goddard (2001, 2003, Audas, Dobson, and Goddard (2002), Goddard and Asimakopoulos (2004), Goddard (2005), Forrest, Goddard, and Simmons (2005), Graham and Stott (2008), Hvattum and Arntzen (2010), and Hvattum (2015). Some research has relied on the use of ordered regression models as a means to normalize bookmakers' odds, such as by Štrumbelj (2014, 2016).…”

“…The following description of the standard ordinal regression models used for the prediction of soccer match outcomes is based on (Dobson and Goddard, 2001) and (Greene, 2012). Assume that M historical matches have been recorded, and that the result of a match is denoted by .…”