Myths And Facts About Football

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

Alabama Fans Understand. The Crimson Tide football team is part of who we are. It isn’t so much that we want the team to win.We need them to win. When they lose, we lose. When they taste victory, we taste it with them. When we talk about the program, we don’t say “they.” We say “we.” It’s an Alabama thing. In his book, ‘Bama Football Myths, bestselling author Jacob M. Carter (The RipTide) statistically defends why he believes the University of Alabama offers the greatest college football program of all time. Commonly heard opinions such as “they don’t play anybody” or “the refs favor them” are put to rest. If you’re an Alabama football fan, this book was written for you.

Written by a world-respected football historian, this football history unpacks the global game's greatest myths in a charming gift edition. Football has been completely mythologized: as a result, many of the things football fans think they know about the game and its history turn out not to be true. Written by Kevin Moore, the founding director of the National Football Museum (the world's leading football museum), this thoroughly researched and authoritative book debunks more than 50 of the greatest myths surrounding football. Moore unearths the truth behind many accepted myths, including: · The Germans took football to Brazil, not the English · Rugby and not football could quite easily have been the world's leading sport · There are gay professional players . . . and always have been! · Goalkeepers should not dive for penalties · Football hooliganism did not begin in England · Shirt colors do make a difference · Cambridge and not Sheffield is the home of the oldest football club in the world · Arsenal should not be in the Premier League . . . they cheated to be there · The Dynamo Kiev team were not executed after beating a German SS team in 1941 · England did not win the World Cup fairly in 1966 . . . but not in the way you think!

Judgment, Decision-Making and Success in Sport presents a thorough overview and assessment of the study of Judgment and Decision-Making (JDM) in sports psychology, and represents an important source of information for those interested in the possible causes and reasons for success and failure in sport. The only book to apply the principles of JDM to sport Applies theory to practice by looking at problems of athletes, coaches, and referees and providing recommendations for dealing with them Offers an overview of current JDM research Useful for psychologists, physical education teachers, sports scientists, and researchers in this field

With a blend of statistical analysis, opinion, love for the game, and a healthy dash of humor, authors Michael Kun and Adam Hoff challenge the myths and beliefs that have long afflicted football. No subject is off limits. The greatness of the 1972 Miami Dolphins? Skewered. America's Team? Put in its place. Pittsburgh's Berkowitz Fish Sandwich? Praised, obviously. Joe Namath? Well, he gets a little bit of everything. The Football Uncyclopedia gives equal time to owners and champions, stadiums and cities. It rushes to the defense of everyone from Shaun Alexander to Kurt Warner and of everything from the Heisman Trophy to Randall Cunningham's marble business. It focuses on player legacies, NFL history, and hot-button issues, but it also delves into topics like celebrity misbehavior, on-air kisses, and the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The Football Uncyclopedia covers the names, the nuances, and everything in between that make football an enduring American phenomenon.

Shmanske and Kahane have organized over 50 essays from prominent Sports Economists into two volumes around two related themes. This second volume explains how sports helps economics via quality data used to test a variety of economic theories.

Stephen Shmanske and Leo Kahane have brought together nearly all of the important authors in the quickly growing field of Sports Economics to contribute chapters to this two-volume set. The result is truly informative in its content and path breaking in its importance to the field. Anyone contemplating research in the field of sports economics will find the works in these volumes to provide both ample background in subject after subject and numerous suggestions for future avenues of research. The editors have recognized two ways that economics and sports interact. First, economic analysis has helped everyone understand many of the peculiar institutions in sports. And second, quality data about individual productivity, salaries, career histories, teamwork, and managerial behavior has helped economists study topics as varied as the economics of discrimination, salary dispersion, and antitrust policy. These two themes of economics helping sports and sports helping economics provide the organizational structure to the two-volume set. The reader will find that sports economists employ or comment on practically every field in economics. Labor Economics comes into play in the areas of salary formation, salary dispersion, and discrimination. Baseballs history and the NCAA are studied with Industrial Organization and Antitrust. Public Finance and Contingent Value Modeling come into play in the study of stadium finance and franchise location. The Efficient Market Hypothesis is examined with data from gambling markets. Macroeconomic effects are studied with data from mega events like the Super Bowl, The World Cup, and the Olympics. The limits of Econometrics are pushed and illustrated with superb data in many of the papers herein. Topics in Applied microeconomics like demand estimation and price discrimination are also covered in several of the included papers. Game Theory, measurement of production functions, and measurement of managerial efficiency all come into play. Talented authors in each of these fields have made contributions to these volumes. The volumes are also rich from the point of view of the sports fan. Every major team sport is covered, and many interesting comparisons can be made especially between the North American League organization and the European-style promotion and relegation leagues. Golf, NASCAR, College athletics, Womens sports, the Olympics, and even bowling are represented in these pages. There is literally something for everyone.

This volume uses the idiosyncrasies of compelling contexts to teach fundamental leadership lessons that are applicable to other settings. Practitioners and researchers are challenged to deviate from standard models and provided with new ideas for leadership development.