Death By Data

Data pervades football today - everyone knows everything! Stats, stats and more stats and we're even inventing new stats to make the old stats even richer in detail and specificity. But at what point does the need for information overrun our need for entertainment and enjoyment of the game. For media providers like Sky and BBC it is used to inform and explain the game.

Whether in post-match or in-game analysis, data and stats are used to add more colour to the game and perhaps better represent and describe what is ahppening. But on another level is it taking away some of the art of being a…