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Simon Kuper Quotes

Whereas fanatic is usually a pejorative word, a Fan is someone who has roots somewhere.

Whereas fanatic is usually a pejorative word, a Fan is someone who has roots somewhere.

Simon Kuper
Soccer, Roots, Fans
"Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and Why the US, Japan, Australia, TurkeyÑand Even IraqÑAre Destined to Become the Kings of the WorldÕs Most Popular Sport". Book by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, August 6, 2009.

Football is not merely a small business, it's also a bad one. Anyone who spends any time inside football soon discovers that just as oil is part of the oil business, stupidity is part of the football business.

Simon Kuper
Football, Oil Business, Stupidity

Other than sports, only war and catastrophe can create this sort of national unity.

Simon Kuper
Sports, War, Unity

It seems that soccer tournaments create those relationships: people gathered together in pubs and living rooms, a whole country suddenly caring about the same event. A World Cup is the sort of common project that otherwise barely exists in modern societies.

Simon Kuper
Soccer, Sports, Country

Even before 2007, this half of a small island was the richest football country on earth. In 2005-2006 the Premiership's total revenue was about £1.4bn, 40 per cent more than its nearest rival, Italy's Serie A. That was before take-off. Now foreign television channels are sending so much cash that the Premiership is expected to take in nearly £1.8bn this season. Even the team that finishes bottom of the table (Wigan might be a good bet) will get £26.8m from TV. That's more than all of Argentine or Belgian football put together.

Simon Kuper
Soccer, Country, Football

You'd never last in South America. Fans take their radios to the stadium so they can think what the commentators think.

Simon Kuper
Thinking, America, Fans
"Sports Commentators". Interview with David Winner, www.askmen.com. September 5, 2011.

Chelsea's players, coaches and agents are now football's wealthiest millionaires. Surely the billions taken from the Russian people by an oligarch in questionable privatisations couldn't be better spent?

Simon Kuper
Soccer, Football, Taken

I remember World Cups in 1982 and 1986 when we weren't there and we'd support Belgium or Denmark, .. They had some players who played in Holland and they were a bit like the Dutch.

Simon Kuper
Player, Support, Cups
"Dutch Orange men get the blues" by Simon Hooper, www.cnn.com. May 10, 2002.

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