090: Stefan Szymanski on Soccernomics and How Sabermetrics, Inequality and Finance Rules the Sport

Stefan Szymanski is the Stephen J. Galetti Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan.

Between 2008-2012 he was a Professor of Economics at Cass Business School, City University, London.

Stefan began researching the economics of professional football in 1989, and has since come to spend his entire time researching the economics and business of sport.

He has published 55 scholarly articles, 14 book chapters, six books and four edited volumes on sports related subjects.

Stefan has also acted as consultant to sport governing bodies and national governments, and has appeared in court as an expert witness on the economics of sport. He has become a regular pundit in the media on business related sports issues.

Stefan’s interests include sports management and economics; sport history, culture and society; the internationalization of sport; international sports federations and the governance of sport.

Stefan is co-author of Soccernomics, author of Money and Soccer: A Soccernomics Guide and co-owner of Soccernomics Agency.

Economics:

In this episode, Stefan mentions: John Kay and Simon Kuper.

Economists:

In this episode, Stefan mentions:

competitive balance defence, collusion, game theory, wage caps, bankruptcy, finance, sabermetrics and soccernomics.

Why the Football System is Stable:

There are a vast number of clubs. Whenever one club fails there are at least a dozen other clubs ready to take their place.
Football is so culturally central to European life that the clubs are never allowed to go bankrupt. They are always re-born in some form or another. In other words, the business that forms the football club can go bankrupt and disappear. But the football club itself almost never does. Football isn’t just a business in Europe, it’s also a dimension of community life. A football club only really dies if the community dies and that doesn’t happen very often.