Startling facts abound in Soccernomics. The country that loves soccer the most is Norway. This is based on looking at the population size, number of registered players and clubs, and attendance at games. England, often derided for under-performing on the international level, actually performs better than the numbers – again, population, number of registered professional players – would suggest was logical.
Also, the French club Olympique Lyonnais is used as a case study. Much like the Oakland A's in baseball, Lyonnais relies less on the knowledge and planning of short-term coaches, and more on the skills of a long-term sporting director. His policy has been to buy good players at a low price and sell them when their value rises dramatically. But a player is never sold before a replacement is ready, no matter how much is offered. Lyonnais, a provincial club, has dominated French football in recent years, thanks to its business-like strategy. It has won the French League seven times in nine years.
Some of the authors' points seem stunningly obvious to an outsider, but are, apparently, beyond the knowledge of coaches and executives at big soccer clubs. They underline what everyone familiar with the English Premier League knows: Although Brazilians tend to be the most skilled players in the world, they rarely transfer and play well in England.
It is pointed out here that even a club as rich and successful as Chelsea did not, until recently, have a relocation adviser for players coming from other countries. Tens of millions have been spent on players who under-perform because they have language and housing difficulties and their children have problems at school. No major corporation would spend that amount of money on a staff member and leave him to fend for himself. But in soccer, that has always been the way it has been done. Toughen up the players by making the relocation difficult.
As an addition to the growing list of good books about soccer, this one is subversive, calling for a radical but rational approach to how soccer operates as a business and as a game. It's more of an eye-opener than England qualifying for the World Cup.
John Doyle is The Globe and Mail's TV columnist and writes widely about soccer. His book The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness and Meaning of Soccer will be published in the spring.
