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  • Published: 2 September 2021
  • ISBN: 9781473574809
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

More Than a Game

Saving Football From Itself




Three lions on the shirt, grassroots underfunded.... A revealing analysis of the state of the English men's game.

A top-to-bottom look at England's national game, from one of the UK's leading business economists.

The Premier League is the most commercially successful football league in history, the self-proclaimed 'best league in the world'. But success has come at a cost, unbalancing the English game to a profound and damaging degree.

Football's stumbling response to COVID-19 and the European Super League disaster are just the most recent examples. It is estimated that more than two thirds of the country's 92 professional clubs are loss-making; payments to agents each year regularly total more than the combined income of all 44 clubs in Leagues 1 and 2; supporters have been squeezed to the limit; racist incidents are on the rise; grassroots facilities are in a dreadful state; and failed World Cup bids have severely weakened England's standing in the global game. The national team's performance at Euro 2020 can't paper over the cracks.

There is an alternative. In this revealing and eye-opening analysis, leading economist Mark Gregory reveals the breadth and depth of the problems facing our national men's game, and shows us a way to bring football home for good.

  • Published: 2 September 2021
  • ISBN: 9781473574809
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

About the author

Mark Gregory

Mark Gregory is EY’s Chief economist in the UK. In a career spanning over 3 decades he has advised Governments and businesses in over 40 countries on economic policy issues, specialising in the liberalisation, regulation and commercialisation of the telecommunications, media and technology sectors. Prior to joining EY he was Global head of Strategy for IBM’s Wireless Consulting business. For the last 5 years, he has led EY’s sports economics practice which has advised the Premier League, the ECB, international Cycling Union, Rugby World Cup on the economic issues affecting their sport, with a wide range of published reports. He is also an advisor to the Centre for Towns, an independent thinktank set up to increase awareness of geographic divides in the UK. He is a lifelong Stoke City supporter.

Praise for More Than a Game

Mark Gregory... knows what he is talking about...you will understand a great deal more about English football and its coming cataclysm than you did before... [a] manifesto for change and returning the game to its roots'

David Aaronovitch, The Times