Football legends

On the occasion of the All Ireland Football Final between Dublin and another team as well as the Premiership match between Manchester United (19 times champions, don't you know) and some crowd from London, it is worth revisiting some of the economics of football:

Team performance: the case of English Premiership football
Carmichael, Thomas & Ward, Managerial & Decision Economics 2000
Sporting production function studies have been almost entirely US based concentrating largely, although not exclusively, on baseball. Mainly due to a dearth of match play statistics, there have been few studies of other sports, with that of association football being a significant omission given the sport's international appeal and global coverage. This study attempts to redress the balance by utilizing a new data source, containing information on a range of specific play variables, to estimate a production function for English Premiership football. Our results emphasize the key attacking and defensive skills, and provide support for the notion that teams may intentionally employ dubious or illegal tactics to succeed. The inclusion of team effects provides evidence consistent with the view of the emergence of an elite group of clubs dominating the league.