Soccernomics

In Soccernomics Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski use statistics and economics to analyze soccer (particularly the English Premier League) in a variety of ways to answer questions & make predictions.  Each chapter takes a question or issue and exhaustively explores it via the medium of statistics.  Representative chapters include The Worst Business in the World: Why Soccer Clubs Don’t (and Shouldn’t) Make Money, Need Not Apply: Does English Soccer Discriminate Against Black People?, The Country That Loves Soccer Most, The Curse of Poverty: Why Poor Countries Are Poor at Sports, and Core to Periphery: The Future Map of Global Soccer.

The book is actually quite interesting.  Those who find statistics unexciting will still find the sections where the authors offer their interpretations of their analyses fascinating --- particularly if they like soccer.  I would recommend it to anyone interested in a behind the scenes, number based look at a popular sport.