The Football Scholars Forum

Quantifying Fútbol: Soccernomics with Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper

alegi — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:33:54 +0000

Soccernomics has been called “the Barcelona of football books” and the “Moneyball of soccer.” On Tuesday, April 16, FSF discussed this influential book with the authors Stefan Szymanski (in East Lansing) and Simon Kuper (via Skype). One of the most important questions asked was: How does the introduction of big data and “soccer analytics” change our understanding of fútbol clubs, fans, and nations? The forum also featured intriguing comparisons between Western Europe and the United States.

Joining the authors were: Andrew Guest, Brian Bunk, Christoph Wagner, Corry Cropper, David Kilpatrick, James Dorsey, Mark Siegel, Hikabwa Chipande, Christian Orlic, Benjamin Dettmar, Peter Demopoulos, Steven Apostolov, Tom McCabe, Alex Galarza, and Peter Alegi.

For Twitter timeline click here, with many thanks to @DrDKilpatrick & @galarzaalex.

Listen to the audio from the session here (mp3).

FSF April: Soccernomics

alegi — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:43:39 +0000

On Tuesday, April 16, at 2pm Eastern Time (11am Pacific, 7pm GMT), FSF will meet to discuss Soccernomics by Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper.

Combining an economist’s brain with a sports writer’s skill, the book applies serious data analysis to everyday soccer topics, revealing counterintuitive truths about the professional game and offering a potentially revolutionary way of looking at fútbol.

Stefan Szymanski will join us here in East Lansing for the session. He is the Stephen J. Galetti Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan. He started 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 extensively on sports related subjects, acted as a consultant to sport governing bodies and national governments, and appeared in court as an expert witness on the economics of sport. Szymanski is a founding partner, with Simon Kuper and Ben Lyttleton, of the Soccernomics consultancy.

Members who would like to participate in the online Skype discussion should contact Alex Galarza (galarza [dot] alex [at] gmail [dot] com) with your Skype name as he will be running the show.

Going Local: U.S. Soccer History

alegi — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:59:51 +0000

On Tuesday, February 26, FSF convened to discuss works by Steven Apostolov, Gabe Logan, and Tom McCabe on the history of American soccer in Massachusetts, Chicago, and northern New Jersey. David Kilpatrick, official historian of the New York Cosmos, skillfully moderated the 90-minute online conversation. Joining the authors and discussant were: Melissa Forbis, Alejandro Gonzalez, Hikabwa Chipande, Lindsay Krasnoff, David Keyes, Brenda Elsey, Brian Bunk, Andrew Guest, Peter Alegi, and Alex Galarza.

Listen to the audio from the session here (mp3).

For Twitter timeline click here, with very special thanks to Lindsay Krasnoff.

FSF cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education

alegi — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:14:12 +0000

Alex Galarza with his PhD advisor (and FSF member) Ed Murphy

The Football Scholars Forum has garnered national media attention as a venue for innovative and collaborative scholarship. On February 11, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a feature article on rethinking doctoral dissertations that quoted FSF co-founder Alex Galarza, a PhD. student in history at Michigan State University. Click here to check out his prototype for a digital dissertation on soccer clubs of the 1950s and 60s in Buenos Aires.

FSF February – U.S. Soccer History

Alex Galarza — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:32:00 +0000

Mark your calendars! On Tuesday, February 26th at 8pm Eastern Standard Time we will be holding our first session of 2013. Our session will feature three works from Steven Apostolov, Tom McCabe, and Gabe Logan on aspects of soccer history in the United States.

You can already find Steven’s article on Massachusetts soccer history here. (For more details about Steven’s work read this interview with him.) Tom’s chapter from his new book manuscript on northern New Jersey is here. Gabe’s chapter on Chicago soccer, showing the rich soccer diversity the city offered to its immigrants and native players alike, can be found here.

David Kilpatrick, freshly minted as official historian of the New York Cosmos, will moderate the discussion. (FYI–check out his recent article on the Arsenal visit to Long Island in January 1986 in the NY Times Goal blog.) Members are welcome to submit questions for our authors to him by email before 2/26 (DKilpatrick [at] mercy [dot] edu).

Finally, our next two spring 2013 sessions are taking shape. Stay tuned for announcements as we are working on bringing Stefan Szymanski of Soccernomics fame to East Lansing.

Insights on The 90th Minute and the future of WPS

Alex Galarza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:10:00 +0000

On Wednesday, December 5, FSF members met in East Lansing and online to discuss Jun Stinson’s documentary film The 90th Minute. We were joined by Gwen Oxenham, the producer of Pelada and author of Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-five Countries, and the Search for Pickup Soccer.

Participants in the session listened to Peter Alegi’s interview with Jun and Gwen’s reflections on the film, as well as her perspective on women’s professional soccer. Discussion topics also included international comparisons; salary inequities; limited media coverage; fan loyalty and other significant challenges facing the new league to launch in the U.S. in early 2013.

Participants: Melissa Forbis, David Kilpatrick, Alon Raab, Alex Galarza, Peter Alegi, Alejandro Gonzalez, Chipande Hikabwa, Alexander Kitroeff, Benjamin Dettmar, and Lindsay Krasnoff.

Listen to the audio from the session here.

What Will it Take for Women’s Pro Soccer to Survive?

alegi — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:52:44 +0000

On Wednesday, December 5, at 3:30pm EST, our final “game” of the 2012 season will feature Jun Stinson’s short film, The 90th Minute.

The 20-minute documentary follows three members of FC Gold Pride, the 2010 Women’s Professional Soccer champions. The film sheds light on what it’s like to be a female professional soccer player in the U.S. — a dream that has become more elusive after the demise of the WPS.

Why are Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and others struggling to play professionally in their country? Why have two pro women’s soccer leagues failed since the heady days of Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and the 1999 Women’s World Cup? What needs to happen for a new women’s league in the U.S. to be sustainable? How does the situation in the U.S. compare with international trends?

Unfortunately, Jun Stinson is unable to join us for the session. However, Peter Alegi interviewed Jun on the film and asked a few questions on behalf of the group. To listen to Peter’s interview with the director, click here. We are pleased that Gwen Oxenham, former Duke and Santos player and one of the producers of the film Pelada , will join us for a terrific season finale!

Send Alex Galarza (galarza1 [at] msu [dot] edu) your Skype name to be included in the call. Alex can also email you the link and password to view the film.

Update: On November 21, “U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati announced the launch of a women’s professional league which will start play in March,” according to ESPN. Read more about it here and here.

Aesthetics, Morality, and Arsenal

Alex Galarza — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:48:34 +0000

FSF members met on November 7th to discuss a selection of chapters from Ted Richards’s edited volume, Soccer and Philosophy: Beautiful Thoughts on the Beautiful Game. The conversation began with Ted discussing the book’s genesis and quickly moved into exploring the potential of aesthetics and morality on the field to speak to deeper issues in philosophy and the human condition. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, the topic of FSF member David Kilpatrick’s chapter in the volume, served as a useful example for participants to discuss style, Nietzsche, and economics.

Participants: Ted Richards, David Kilpatrick, David Roberts, Christoph Wagner, Andrew Guest, Laurent Dubois, Peter Alegi, Alex Galarza

Unfortunately, due to technical issues, we were unable to record the session.

From Aristotle to Zidane: Soccer and Philosophy

alegi — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:20:18 +0000

On Wednesday, November 7, at 1pm EST (the day after the U.S. presidential election), the Football Scholars Forum will convene to discuss Ted Richards’s edited book Soccer and Philosophy: Beautiful Thoughts on the Beautiful Game. This session promises to expand the horizons of those of us whose knowledge of the intersections of philosophy and football is limited to Monty Python’s famously hilarious “Germany vs. Greece” video.

“This book is a delight,” Simon Kuper notes, “and it taught me more philosophy than I learned in my entire time at university.”

Ted Richards, “a philosopher who loves soccer,” will be joining the conversation via Skype, along with chapter authors David Kilpatrick and Jesús Ilundáin. We have selected several chapters to discuss, though participants are free to delve as deeply into the book as they wish. The selected chapters are:

•    Stephen Minister, “What’s Wrong with Negative Soccer?”
•    John Foster, “Tell Me How You Play and I’ll Tell You Who You Are”
•    Victor Durà-Vilà, “Why Playing Beautifully is Morally Better”
•    David Kilpatrick, “Nietzsche’s Arsenal”
•    Jesús Ilundáin and Cesar Torres, “Embellishing the Ugly Side”

Please RSVP by emailing your Skype name to Alex Galarza (galarza1 AT msu DOT edu) so that you can be included in the online call.

Globalizing “El Tri”: Mexican fans in the U.S.A.

alegi — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:18:00 +0000

Our inaugural meeting of 2012-13 was an exciting affair. It revolved around Javier Pescador’s new work on Mexican fans of “El Tri” in the United States. The uses of wrestling masks, Aztec symbols, churros and other markers of Mexican-ness demonstrate some of the ways in which fans are helping to transform the Mexican national team into a global brand.

The discussion covered many important topics and themes, including youth soccer, commercial and media imperatives, differences between Mexico-based and U.S.-based fan experiences, club vs. national team tensions (in MLS, for example), and the sources and methodology informing this research. Pescador’s Flickr photostream here is worth checking out.

Participants: Alejandro Gonzales, Hikabwa Chipande, Ben Smith, Ed Murphy, and Peter Alegi (all with the author in East Lansing); David Keyes, Corry Cropper, Melissa Forbis, Ana Paula Martinez, Andrew Guest, Sean Jacobs, Chris Bolsmann, and David Kilpatrick (via Skype).

Listen to the audio recording here.