Simon Kuper: The Economics of the Football World Cup

The economics of football are immense, intricate, and understood by few - with weekly wages in the hundreds of thousands, and player transfers in the hundreds of millions.

One of those few is Simon Kuper, today’s guest and author of Soccernomics - the seminal book on how the money flows in football and one of my favourite books of all time. 

He is releasing an updated version of the book prior to the world cup in Qatar later this month - he came on Jimmy's Jobs to discuss why this will be such a tightly contested tournament, the significance of it being held in Qatar and why it actually hasn’t cost $220billion as many outlets have reported…

We also discuss the wider economics of football such as the jobs it has created, whether will we ever see the first billion-pound player and why we should feel sorry for footballers. 

Simon is one of the most interesting people I have ever met and I hope you enjoy listening to the most on-brand 'Jimmy McLoughlin' podcasts we've ever made.

You can up to Jimmy's substack here for weekly content on the future of work, technology, and politics. 

In this episode we discuss:

• How he describes himself at a party.

• The republishing of Soccernomics- the changes in the economics of football since he wrote the book 10 years ago. 

• The economics of the Football World Cup. 

• The significance of Qatar hosting the world cup.

• Will we see protests at the world cup?

• How is social media impacting the economics of football?

• Which footballers have had the most interesting post-career jobs?

• The future of non-playing jobs in football.

• The myth of the omnipotent manager and why football was modelled on the army. 

• When will we see the first female manager in the Premier League?

• Why capital cities aren’t successful at winning European Cups- and when will PSG win it?

• Will we see the first billion-pound player?

• How does the branding of a player impact the value of them?

• Which clubs have had the best transfer policy?

• The next frontier of football post-data.

• What Messi does off the ball.

• Who is the greatest player of all time?

• The compensation phenomenon and the dilemma of being a footballer.

• The new ownership structure of Chelsea and Todd Boehly. 

• Who will win the World Cup?

Subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes, releasing every Wednesday.

You can sign up to Jimmy's Substack here for weekly content on the future of work, technology, and politics

For more information on partnering with us please visit our partnerships page here.

Also make sure you subscribe to The Shift, you can find it here on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices