Festival of Ideas Appearance now on Youtube

 

We recently hosted Dr Tosh Warwick at York Festival of Ideas, on the topic 'Lost Football Grounds and Terraces'.

The talk, from June 2024, is now available to watch on Youtube. Simply click on the embedded video above.

Euro 2024 Latest

The Group Stage ended with England through to the Round of Sixteen but Scotland knocked out, unable to go through in a 'best third place' capacity.  All of our predictions were for Scotland to lead a 'Highland Charge' through to the knockout rounds for the first time but it was just not to be.

Scotland's first game was also their heaviest ever defeat in the Championship, suffering a 1-5 defeat to hosts Germany. Once more their 'top scorer' all time record is 1 goal, this time around Scot McTominay joins that list for scoring Scotland's solitary goal of the three games, against Switzerland. Well, not exactly the solitary goal, as they notched another in that opening game against Germany, although that was an own-goal by Antonio Rudiger.  Although not recorded by the UEFA website, technically Rudiger became Scotland's joint top goalscorer at a European  Championships!

England have looked uninspiring in each game, and weak at the back.  Their 'safefty first' approach of passing out from the back has caused some high stress levels amongst those of us watching; These players are not Barcelona and the wayward passes across midfield and defence, and a goalkeeper that sometimes plays as sweeper, often look clumsy and too inviting to the opposition who tend to press hard and find a goal.  However some last gasp heroics from Bellingam (bicycle kick!) and Kane (confident header from Ivan Toney's flick to the back post) spared the three lions from an embarrassing flight home.  

Like it or not it is a tactic that has just about worked, and other teams have done well in tournaments in the same way.  Momentum is everything and in knockout football the key is to get out of the group with as few injuries or cards as possible then gain momentum, peaking in the big games.  England somehow won their group, scraped past Slovakia, and now it is time to turn on the style.  Maybe, just maybe, this time we can say #itscominghome ?

Here are out predictions for the Round of 16, what are yours?

	AG	KT	Dice
Switzerland v Italy	0 - 1	0 - 1	0 - 2
Germany v Denmark	2 - 1	3 - 1	3 - 1
England v Slovakia	2 - 0	0v0 (5v4 on pens)	0 - 4
Spain v Georgia	3 - 1	4 - 0	2 - 2 (3 v 1 AET)
France v Belgium	1 – 1 (3 – 2 AET)	2v2 (5 - 5 AET  5v4 pen)	0 v 0  (0 v 0 AET,  0 v 1 pens)
Portugal v Slovenia	3 - 1	2 - 0	6 - 3
Romania v Netherlands	1 - 1 (2 - 3 AET)	1 - 0	0 v 0 (2 v 0 AET)
Austria v Turkey	4 -1	1 - 1 (3 - 2 AET)	0 - 5

As usual, we present these predictions for fun only and do not encourage gambling, nor do we suggest that you use any of this information to inform it!

UK General Election - party manifestos on sport compared

Anyone living in the UK won't have failed to notice that a General Election is taking place, as well as the Euros!  Politicians are increasingly likely to use football as a source of popularity and the governance of football has become a political issue, with the current government attempting to bring in financial regulation of the game.

In the name of public service we have gone through the manifestos of the five parties currently leading in the UK wide opinion polls to bring you a summary of their policies towards sport and football in England (for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland sport is a devolved issue).

We offer no support or endorsement of a specific party here but simply seek to summarize the facts out of public service.  So here are their policies presented in alphabetical order with a brief comment:

Conservative

Introduce Independent Football Regulator

Stop clubs joining breakaway leagues

Implement Carney Review of Women’s Football and support participation of women and girls

Continue Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme

The Conservatives essentially envisage continuing as they are - the Independent Regulator legislation ran out of time.

Green

Invest £5bn in local sports, arts and culture

Keep local sports facilities open

End VAT on 'cultural activities'

The Greens have few policies on sport and focus on the grass roots side rather than the populist potential of the elite game.

Labour

Introduce Independent Football Regulator

Stop clubs joining breakaway leagues

Support grassroots clubs to expand access to sport

Introduce consumer protection to stop ticket touts

'deliver international events with pride and seek opportunities where we can'

Labour are adopting the Conservative approach but interestingly with an interest in stopping ticket touts and a minimal promise to host mega-events where it might be relevant - but deliberately avoiding naming any specific event.

Liberal Democrat

Introduce Independent Regulator but with powers to impose 'a fairer financial flow to well run clubs', include human rights questions in propriety tests for owners and directors, and require clubs to have EDI action plans

Boost participation in sports and physical activity by investing in leisure centres, swimming pools and other grassroots facilities and supporting community sports clubs.'

Protect sports and arts funding via National Lottery

Introduce consumer protection to stop ticket touts

Place levy on gambling companies

Expand free-to-air coverage to include more football as well as rugby, cricket, golf and tennis

Generally support and encourage EDI in sport

The Liberal Democrats are the most interventionist of any major party - they also progress the Independent Regulator but with a much bigger footprint by adding human rights and EDI factors as well as looking at participation.  They want to regulate gambling, a big sports-related product more, and more sport on telly, too.

Reform

'protect country sports'

Reform have kept their sporting policy simple - defend hunting which they say helps the environment. Tally-ho!

So we can say that where parties consider elite sport they generally offer more regulation of it - but to different extents - for the Greens and Reform, presumably the status quo would continue, and professional football would be left to regulate itself.  All except Reform consider grassroots sports with its broader community and health impacts important in some way - but again there are subtle differences in policy.

We hope that this has helped those with an interest in sport and football policy in England to decide who to vote for come July 4th!

Celebrating Ten Years of Soccer Mad Boffins with a Euro 2024 Tournament Prediction

It was June 2014 when we founded this blog. The launch coincided not only with our FIFA scholarship to research the business and administrative history of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, but also with the start of that years FIFA World Cup, the 20th edition of the tournament hosted in Brazil.

We followed the tournament with various comments and fun posts and who could predict that we would still be going strong in 2024!?

Speaking of predictions, the first time that we attempted to predict the scores and outcomes of a football tournament was the following edition, Russia 2018.  Which leads us nicely to the present.

Today, Friday 14th June, is the start of the UEFA European Championship. Of the British teams, Scotland face Germany on the opening evening, whilst England play Serbia on Sunday 16th.

BBC pundits generally favour England or France to win the cup which can you read by.following this link.

Sky Sports report betting odds also favour the cross-channel rivals but show that Germany and Portugal are close behind, see here.

The NY Times in collaboration with The Athletic has a more statistical approach, showing Germany as having a squad 'built to win', Portugal as 'having worked the goalkeeeper more than any other team' and Belgium's Lokaku as being a top striker.  England, they sneer dismissively, will be heavily reliant on Harry Kane's goals. See here.

Being free thinkers, we make our own predictions, as well as randomly rolling a dice as a control test.  Using our football knowledge and gut instinct, we have some interesting ideas:

On the group games for Scotland and England:

Scotland

Game	AG	KT	Dice
Germany v Scotland	0-2	1-1	0-3
Scotland v Switzerland	3-2	0-1	1-4
Scotland v Hungary	1-0	2-1	3-0

 

England

Game	AG	KT	Dice
Serbia v England	0-3	1-1	1-0
Denmark v England	0-2	0-2	2-6
England v Slovenia	5-0	1-1	2-0

 

Regarding tournament progress, both Alex and Kevin see the Brits as qualifying from their respective groups, itself a huge achievement for the Scottish bravehearts, but are less confident in England than the professional pundits or bookmakers, predicting a Quarter Final exit.  The dice rolled that both nations will crash out in the Round of 16.

Progress

Team	AG	KT	Dice
Scotland	R16	R16	R16
England	QF	QF	R16

The UK General Election will be held just days after the round of 16. As we reported in our 2021 chapter on sport and populism Harold Wilson lost the 1970 General Election just days after England crashed out of the 1970 World Cup to Germany. Rishi Sunak must be pretty confident that England will progress to the Quarter Finals too!

In terms of who will win the tournament:

Winners

Alex (AG) : France (winners), Portugal (runner-up)

Kevin (KT): Portugal (winners), Croatia (runner-up)

Dice: Croatia (winners), Ukraine (runner-up)

Over to YOU

Who do YOU think will win? How far do YOU think that England or Scotland can go? Please leave us a comment below.

PS: We hope that you enjoy the Euro 2024 tournament and in celebrating 2014-2024 of Soccer Mad Boffins.  Please read the above article for fun, we offer no advice nor encouragement for betting/gambling on the tournament and do this prediction exercise solely for entertainment and to see if we can be more accurate than the pundits!

Latest Publication: 'Conceptualising historical project studies – A complementary partnership' in the International Journal of Project Management

We are pleased to announce our latest paper, in a Special Issue of the International Journal of Project Management Issue 42 (May 2024) on the topic 'Essays on Projects and Their Organisation' edited by Graham Winch of Alliance Business School, Manchester.

Highlights

• •

  The history of projects together with the interdisciplinary focus of project studies provides an opportunity for the utilization of historical research

• •

  Existing project histories tend to be teleological in focus and lack historical context

• •

  We provide a framework for the application of historical research methods based on archives

• •

  Thinking historically unlocks the meso study of project context

• •

  A process is explicated to demonstrate how historical investigation can contribute to theoretical novelty

The paper is available to those with access to the journal, from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2024.102601

York Festival of Ideas 2024: Rediscovering Lost Football Grounds and Terraces with Dr Tosh Warwick

On Sunday 9th June 2024, we presented at York Festival of Ideas, University of York, with Dr Tosh Warwick of Sheffield University on the topic 'rediscovering lost football grounds and terraces.'

A packed room heard Tosh present a short slide show about his research on the topic and announce his new book, that he is currently researching.

Alex and Kevin then began a panel conversation by asking Tosh a couple of questions, before opening to the questioning to the attendees.  All three of us then answered questions relating to football in England and Scotland, the business of football, Barcelona's new stadium development, and Darlington's infamous Reynolds Arena. 

After the event we joined Tosh for a pizza in York city centre and were joined by Rob Nichols, editor of Middlesbrough FC fanzine 'Fly Me To The Moon' who also attended the event.

Alex, Tosh and Kevin

The previous day was notable for an interview with Kevin on BBC Radio York to promote the event at which he discussed what to expect and answered questions from DJ Freya Cox, famous for appearing on the 2021 edition of Great British Bake-Off, about her home town teams of Scarborough and their stadium history.

University of Barcelona School of Economics: May 2024

On 15th May 2024, we were delighted to present our paper 'Temporality and Virtual Organisations in Business History', to a packed room of the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona.

Drawing upon our published work, we explained how the study of historic sport mega projects allows for the enrichment and improved understanding for the fields of project management studies as well as for business, management and economic history.

We each presented for thirty minutes, in other words an hour-long presentation, to outline our ideas and explain some of the concepts and frameworks developed and refined from our own studies.

We also found time to explore the University district which was a five minute walk from the Barcelona FC neighbourhood. This was an amazing time to be in the area, as the famous Campo Non stadium is renovated and modernised.  Surrounded by cranes, this was a golden opportunity to witness Barcelona's famous stadium under such a scale of development, and we were able to take photos to share with our readers.

Sadly, the famous La Masia Academy, where so many stars such as Lionel Messi, were developed, was also shut and off-limits.  We hope that is has new life breathed into it soon, and believe that it should be preserved as an important heritage site.

Of course, we also made time to experience the 'La Rambla Del Barca', the street packed with Barcelona FC shops, restaurants and the museum (currently in abbreviated form). This area outside of the stadium had a real buzz about it, but shall also be cleared to make way for a new walkway and facilities.

As historians of football clubs, administration and broadly speaking their 'business', the museum was of particular interest. Many fascinating items were contained within, spanning the entire history of the club from its formation, the Spanish civil war, world wars, and the post-Cruyff era to the present day. The below images really just scratch the surface of what you can expect to find. Needless to say, the trophy collection alone requires its own large room.   The collections include mens and womens football as well as handball, basketball, and any others sports that the club has been represented at.

On our final night we were treated to a walk around historic Barcelona, taking in Las Ramblas, and famous buildings such as a house designed by Gaudi.  The importance of sport to the people of Barcelona is perhaps best summarised by the inclusion of the FC Barcelona club badge in this stained glass window of the Santa María del Mar church (middle panel, bottom row):

We wish to thank our hosts at the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona, especially to Tomas Fernandez De Sevilla Mansanet, for inviting us.  Please check out his superb publications on the business and sporting history of FC Barcelona, especially his recent paper in Management and Organizational History, of which he is probably the best scholar on the topic.