To place this chapter in an analytical context, we need to consider two alternative versions of economics. Conventional or mainstream economics has developed a set of theories and terminologies based around such concepts as rational utility maximizing actors, supply and demand, and efficient markets. In the wake of the global financial crisis the adequacy of mainstream economics has been widely challenged. The central doctrines of economics “have encouraged the deregulation and de-institutionalization of markets, especially financial markets, thereby increasing volatility” (Skidelsky 2018: 384). An alternative perspective focuses on the reduction of inequality and the promotion of a more fulfilling life, which may not be captured by statistics such as growth in GDP.

Mainstream economics is not irrelevant or outdated, to discard it would be to lose valuable insights and ways of thinking about problems, but it is insufficient. Skidelsky admits that economics is “micro-efficient, but macro inefficient” (Skidelsky 2018: 387). A risk arises in aggregating micro decisions into a belief that a macro model can be built on “the optimizing decisions of well-informed, forward-looking rational agents, subject only to the logic of competitive markets” (Skidelsky 2018: 386). Behavioural economics, using the insights of psychology and experiments on cooperation, offers a corrective to oversimplified assumptions of rationality, but can lead to behaviour being labelled as irrational when it “may be perfectly reasonable in the circumstances” (Skidelsky 2018: 389).

Some classic concepts of economics have been shown to be applicable in this book. Football shows a tendency towards oligopoly as far as the big clubs are concerned. What has emerged “is a handful of really big winners with quasi-monopoly status at the top, and a very long tail with everyone else earning a fraction of their returns” (Lonergan & Blyth 2020: 99). There is cartel-like behaviour in an attempt to erect barriers to new entrants and to a significant extent competition law has been evaded. All this might suggest the familiar phenomenon of market failure and the need for a resort to the usual corrective remedies.