The EPL Talk Podcast discusses the FA's Respect campaign towards officials. Why are officials so badly treated by supporters, players and managers? Has the campaign had any positive affect? Why does John Yerry always lead a group of Chelsea players to crowd around the officials? Why does Sir Alex Ferguson always seem to blame the officials when Manchester United has an unexpectedly bad result?

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Another day, another dive. With a stilted Liverpool trailing a frisky Birmingham City at Anfield late, David N'Gog (pronounced like "own goal") sensationally split two defenders while charging in from the left. N'Gog then almost blew past Lee Carsley, but Carsley slid towards him, grazing the ball while managing to avoid any contact.

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Want improvement? A century ago as America's eastern cities overpopulated it was, "Go West, young man." For soccer a century later the trumpet sounds the same. Only going west means tracking back to the previous Western frontier. In mainland Europe. Or at least that's what Simon Kuper believes and writes in his and economist Stefan Szymanski's new book, Soccernomics.

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After a three week hiatus, Kartik Krishnaiyer returns to host the show with some excerpts from our EPL Talk interview with critically acclaimed and best selling author, Simon Kuper. Brian Zygo also catches up with Rico Clark to get his thoughts on scoring for the US in front of his father and World Cup qualification.

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Remember a few years ago how everyone --myself included-- was all OMFG when "How Soccer Explains The World Came Out"? I was all tits-over-tail about and then my man Tom Fina, The Angriest Man in Metrolandâ„¢, hit me with the heat one night that "Frank Foer is just Kuper light".
Intrigued, I had to find out who this Simon Kuper was so I read his engrossing "Soccer Against the Enemy" and found myself swiftly agreeing with Fina. Click to continue reading...

For the past three days, we've been giving away a copy of FIFA 10 the new video game from EA. In the next few days to next couple of weeks, we'll be giving away a copy of the game on random days as well as football books.

Yesterday's winner of FIFA 10 was JD Thomas.

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For the past two days, we've been giving away a copy of FIFA 10 the new video game from EA. In the next few days to next couple of weeks, we'll be giving away a copy of the game on random days as well as football books.

Yesterday's winner of FIFA 10 was Patrick Keating.

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Yesterday we debuted our new FIFA 10 contest where we'll be giving away a copy of the game on random days within the next two weeks as well as football books.

Yesterday's winner of FIFA 10 was TJ Brustowicz. But if you want to try and win a copy of FIFA 10 for yourself, go ahead and enter today's contest.

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During the next two weeks, we'll be giving away copies of FIFA 10 the new game from EA as well as three different football books as prizes, so be sure to keep on coming back each day to see when the next contest is announced.

Today, for the first time, we'll be giving away a copy of FIFA 10 to one lucky person who correctly answers the following trivia question and sends his or her answer in by the deadline of 5pm ET/9pm UK time on Monday, October 26, 2009.

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One shouldn't be in the business of making blind endorsements, but I'm going to step out and echo my dude Dunny's co-sign on Steve Sirk's new Columbus Crew book, A Massive Season. I haven't read it but it's just nice to see some American soccer-based product available in Amazon.com.
This coupled with the long, long, long-awaited release of Simon Kuper's upcoming book, Soccernomics, makes for a banner month for The Largest Library of Soccer Related Literature on the Jersey Shoreâ„¢. Click to continue reading...

Remember a few years ago when "How Soccer Explains the World" came out and everyone thought Franklin Foer was the next Simon Kuper? For 8 minutes and 9 seconds you can relive those heady times once again courtesy of the CBC. Thanks Canada! Click to continue reading...

"Win every game!" was the advice Graham Taylor offered to his successor as England manager in 1994. Well Fabio Capello has done that competitively thus far, raising expectations in the land of false football optimism once more.In their fascinating new book 'Soccernomics'/'Why England Lose(UK)', out in the States October 27th, Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanksi argue that the Three Lions have actually Click to continue reading...

Throughout my life I've been both types of fan, loyalist and leach, depending on the sport. There is logic and even romance in each. But as I age I'm attracted more and more to the latter, to the Chuck Klosterman sort of sports fandom that resembles musical taste – polygamous and fickle. I think this is common for a lot of modern sports fans, the mass consumers of entertainment that we are.

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Preview: Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski
Did you know Arsene Wenger has a master's degree in economics? And what has he learnt from it? Don't buy old players, buy in them their early 20s and sell them as soon as someone offers more than you think they are worth.
Another insightfull take from the Australian Financial Review:

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If you saw Cornell Glen's miss and Rico's wonder strike, you saw the game. In fact, I'm jealous of you if that's all you saw.
Nevertheless, yesterday was as good a day to be an American as it was a lousy day to be Argentine or Northern Irish.* Bottom-lining it, the very worst case scenario is needing a draw at home to Costa Rica to go directly to South Africa. Click to continue reading...

1. England. Damn.

2. Argentina. Damn.

3. In light of the wild reversals of fortune seemingly or I would actually think obviously brought about at their respective teams by Capello and Maradona it's a mystery to me how someone like Simon Kuper could argue with a straight face that a manager is a figure of little real importance who could be replaced by a Polish Lowland Sheepdog with no ill effects, since even Steve McClaren seemed to bring with him a whole parcel of ill effects, and regardless of your opinion of Steve McClaren he is presumably a few notches higher on the grand scale of being than even a very well-trained Polish Lowland Sheepdog, although for the sake of argument we have to consider the possibility that England would have been exactly where they are now under Steve McClaren, that all the team were waiting on was some mysterious gelling process and an improvement in Aaron Lennon's crossing, the end result of which would have seen them playing those little plinky through balls to devastating effect regardless of who was on the sideline, whether Steve McClaren or a Polish Lowland Sheepdog, or even Alan Shearer, but to me the whole point is that under Steve McClaren they never actually tried those little plinky through balls, but then what do I know, never having sat in on a single pitch meeting about how Freakonomics could be applied to soccer.

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Why England Lose & and Other Curious Phenomena Explained
Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski
ISBN: 0007301111
HarperSport;
Hardback, 352pp
After Football Against the Enemy announced his arrival with a bang in 1994, every Simon Kuper book carries a huge weight of expectation. Click to continue reading...

An article by Simon Kuper draws attention on how the English continued to attend football matches even as the British Expeditionary Force were evacuating Dunkirk. For many, the preoccupation was their team's fortunes rather than the drone of Pathe newsreels of the war.

Even Sir Tom Finney recalling the war was more concerned about playing Arsenal in the 1941 War Cup : "I wasn't all that interested in the war when I was playing.

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The Nehru Cup (International Football Tournament) is a tournament organized by the All India Football Federation. It was launched in 1982, but was not held between 1998 and 2007. After the trophy was won by the Iraq in 1997, it was reinstated only in 2007.
India -whose current FIFA ranking is 156 beat Syria who are ranked 95.

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CSRN Welcomes The Two Footed Tackle to the Network every Wednesday for the 2009/10 season.
Gary Andrews and Chris Nee cover the impending start of the Premier League, the Community Shield, the first week of the Football League and Ligue 1 seasons, financial trouble in Argentina, Major League Soccer and whether - as Simon Kuper claims - anyone could do Sir Alex Ferguson's job.

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"Just this one afternoon started the whole thing off - there was no prolonged courtship ... In a desperate and percipient attempt to stop the inevitable, Dad quickly took me to Spurs to see Jimmy Greaves score four against Sunderland in a 5-1 win, but the damage had been done, and the six goals and all the great players left me cold: I'd already fallen for the team that beat Stoke 1-0 from a penalty rebound.

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Apart from transfer rumours, commentary on managers probably forms the bulk of football chatter. Before, during and after every game, every decision is scrutinised; every minute move debated; tactics, strategy, man-management, motivation, appearance all feed into an endless discourse debating whether any given manager is succeeding or not.

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Simon Kuper (of Football against the Enemy fame) has published a new book entitled "Why England Lose: and Other Curious Phenomena Explained." Jonathan Wilson reviewed it today on the Guardian's site and this bit actually made me say, "wow."
Quote: The book, it should be said, is quite magnificent, a sort of Freakonomics for football, using economic theory and methods to dispel myths and explain odd trends in the game. Click to continue reading...

The military junta controls Myanmar with an iron hand which includes media and internet censorship which is why David Beckham remains that country's top sporting preoccupation. He may deliver freedom to them at their doorstep.

Simon Kuper writes about Googles powerful public opinion tool, Insights for Search and uncovers some fascinating gems.

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Check it. This fall Duke University's history dept. is offering a course called "World Cup & World Politics". Basically it examines global politics using soccer as the vehicle of sorts (a bit like those books by Simon Kuper and Franklin Foer).
Seriously kids, it's got your name written all over it: not only is the subject matter appealing but it's got A) no exams and is B) a Tuesday-Thursday class that starts at 1:15pm so plenty of time to sleep off hangovers. Click to continue reading...

The 'Nats have had their first training session to prepare for next week's Confederations Cup kickoff against world champions Italy. Of course, Studio 90 checks in, but the good ol' USMNT blog also has Jay DeMerit's thoughts on the trip so far. FIFA.com provides an interview with Italy boss Marcelo Lippi and the tourney squad lists, while the unmatchable Simon Kuper lets on how exciting this Click to continue reading...

The song is Summer Rain by Bojo Mujo.

Simon Kuper takes us back to 'ticky ticky'. South African lingo for footie skills developed under apartheid when sporting contacts were cut off. The game had passed by Bafana Bafana when SA was welcomed back into the world. Still, the showboating went on even as the national team struggled with any meaningful success.

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Simon Kuper finds out that the EPL's favourite bogeyman, Michel Platini, like Obama, is just another armchair re-distributor of wealth.

However more ominously Kuper ends with these words:

"English rule in football will eventually collapse. However, it will be ended not by some puny regulator but by something now unforeseen.

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Brian Clough's ill fated 44 days at Leeds United. The legend even had Muhammad Ali talking on TV about him. But true to Clough's nature, he was going to fight even that passing reference. Tearing down institutions. Shaking up the cozy old boys club that ruled football. Leeds United was just that.

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If you're bored with the same old story lines in the Premier League that are repeated on blogs and websites around cyberspace, choose from the following Premier League-related articles that you may enjoy instead: ECB Abandon Plans for English Premier League (The Cricket Blog). We can now thank the Credit Crunch for one thing. Click to continue reading...