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Why England Lose

And Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained

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Why England Lose

By: Simon Kuper, Stefan Szymanski
Narrated by: Colin Mace
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About this listen

Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn’t America play the sport internationally… and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style?

Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, "Why England Lose" reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer.

No training in economics is needed to read Why England Lose. But the listener will come away from it with a better understanding not just of football, but of how economists think and why they know.

©2009 Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (P)2010 Audible Ltd Sports Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

" Why England Lose is an Arsene Wenger of a book - more thoughtful than most of its rivals and, by football standards, positively intellectual." ( The Times)
"It is rare, even after the great leaps football literature has taken in the past two decades, to find a book that takes the breath away, but Why England Lose does. Every page engages, entertains and challenges the lazy assumptions that still dominate football, not merely in its punditry, but all too often in the way that clubs are run." ( FourFourTwo)
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This book is brilliant, but the problem is it has a lot of tables that convert horribly to audio.

There is one table that takes about 6 minutes to read out.

Given the amount of data involved in the book I think you are much better off reading it than listening to it.

That said it's incredibly interesting.

Better off reading it

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The authors are probably right, many soccer followers are also stat nuts and table lovers. I know I am. This book delivers big time - yes the high number of detailed tables narrated can be a bit of a drag, I guess you get what you pay for and one is more than adequately compensated by the depth and variety of research that has gone into this book. If you love the counter-intuitive again the book delivers; surprising examples of who is best and worst and why. The world of soccer is covered here not just england and it is bang up to date being released just before the world cup. Best of all - the author's narrative of how England would exit the competition was spot on.

The reading was very good

Great analysis of the contemporary soccer world

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Possibly too many stats but generally easily digestable. They have made a follow up book.

Full of interesting facts!

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At last, a discussion about football based on facts - not based on beer and b*****t

A must for anyone interested in football

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great listening and performance from Colin Mace very interesting book. need updating to the latest edition.

One for Football Fans

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