The explosion in popularity of web-based fantasy football competitions is exacerbating the plague of unconstructive and superfluous football analysis amongst fans and ‘experts’ alike.
It is one step further towards the gradual Americanization of a game that has so far resisted attempts to be oversimplified through statistics.
Football is spatially abstract and at any moment allows for infinite possibilities, each decision completely and utterly original.
The simultaneous freedom of movement enjoyed by 22 players is concurrently liberating and restrictive, and to assume that events can be viewed objectively in a game that is at its core subjective is farcical.
Yet it would be similarly farcical to assume that fantasy football’s raison d’être is somehow malevolent, created by the sporting equivalent of the Axis of Evil to bring football to its knees.
The analogy is excessively hyperbolic, nonetheless to understand the game’s popularity is to understand the level of thoughtfulness with which an average fan would approach a football match. Events affecting point scores include goals, assists, cards, saves and playing time.
Would an overlapping fullback have had space to play a ball into the penalty area if a wide midfielder had not made an inside run towards a more central position, taking an opposition wide player with him?
The shot on goal is an end product, the culmination of an attacking move reliant upon so many factors external to the striker himself that he is merely the final worker on the production line, gift-wrapping what was largely formed before it got to him.
It is only after the departure of Xabi Alonso that unobservant Liverpool fans realized his true worth, while only the truly attentive understand Sergio Busquets indispensability to Spain. Football is not a game that lends itself to statistics, yet fantasy football is game based fundamentally on objective data.
And while its popularity grows exponentially, we can only hope that Y2K is just running late.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The Matilda scored the first two of her team's goals in the 4-0 win.
With the Liverpool manager leaving the club after this season, his West Ham rival can't wait for him to go - in the nicest…
Arsenal have survived a late scare at Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham to stay narrowly ahead in the compelling race for the Premier League title. A…
At the time this column usually goes live next Monday morning, I’ll be in the stands at Selhurst Park watching Crystal Palace take on…
And just like that, another A-League regular season (sans one game) is in the books and we look ahead to the finals. Let's recap…
Salah was dropped from the starting side for the visit to London - and the striker was involved in a furious confrontation with Klopp…
