Sky Sports mocked for using Football Manager to rate signings
Sky Sports News has been mocked by football fans on Twitter after it began using the database of the popular Football Manager video game to rate new signings.
Players including Robert Lewandowski and Esteban Cambiasso were compared on screen in real time using the data, evoking disbelief amongst some fans unaware that the research put into the game is of such a calibre that clubs themselves have been using the database for years.
You've lost it lads. Proper heads rolling all over the place. https://t.co/cEUnT1yqQP
— Gaz Phiz (@blueboi1987) August 3, 2015
Despite being built for fun the information that underpins Football Manager is both extensive and accurate, having been exhaustively compiled by a network of 1,300 global scouts on behalf of developer Sports Interactive.
Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson said: “All different forms of data are valid. Saying humans can’t provide accurate data is wrong – players signed from scouting, not stats alone. And that makes our research & huge scouting network just as valid as other sources – plus we have much better coverage globally.”
Sports Interactive refuse to say which clubs make use of its data but claims that Premier League and European clubs are amongst those to participate.