Moneyball UK

If you're a football fan and an economist, you may have come across Moneyball, the story of some data junkies who revolutionised how teams approach baseball in the US, and you may have seen the response of many cynics to Liverpool's attempt to adopt statistical techniques to augment their pursuit of success.

Sadly for those cynics, Manchester City provide the ultimate rebuttal of their sneering at the use of statistics in football, as this Guardian article shows. Vincent Kompany, a man whose stock never seems to stop rising, instigated weekly reviews of highly detailed OPTA data on City's defensive performances on arrival at the club, and it's hard to argue that they didn't help, since City were one of the best defensive sides in the league last season (and the one before that).

However, for those of you football fans and studiers of econ217ab, there's a huge opportunity coming your way.  City are setting up MCFCAnalytics from today, and at 5pm are releasing OPTA data from the 2011-12 season free of charge. This kind of data costs thousands of pounds usually, yet it's precisely the kind of data necessary to pursue theories about how football works - have you got a budding theory about why City kept winning? About why teams always win at home? You can start now to investigate it as the data will be available!

I'd like to specifically encourage you ahead of your third year, when you'll write your extended essay. Data like this could form the basis of a fascinating essay.  I've currently got students looking into how and why players trust each other, I've done research personally on whether Premiership referees discriminate, and have many plans for future research projects using this kind of data. Making use of this data to either look at footballing strategy or test economic theories will be one of the options you can choose at the end of the coming year when you start thinking about your extended essay...