The English FA will ask England manager Fabio Capello to remove his name from a website that planned to rate players numerically for statistical and fantasy purposes. The "Capello Index" would take into account a player's position and performance. Players would be scored out of 100 total points.

The FA has a bunch of issues here. The Capello Index was to debut at the World Cup. The FA thought it would be both a distraction to the players and a dangerous "tell" of the bench boss's strategy. ("If Capello designed the Capello Index, he must want players to do well on it…") Furthermore, Capello's on six million pounds (US $9 million) a year in salary, and the FA doesn't think he needs to lend his name or expertise to other ventures.

That's all fine, but it might be a blow to fantasy soccer. There are existing fantasy games for sure, but soccer's low scoring—and a shortage of stats means it hasn't seen the explosion of interest we've seen in football or baseball.

The stats are actually there. There are companies in Europe that carefully collect data on players' touches, passing efficiency, shooting efficiency, fouls committed and so on. Like "tackles" in the NFL, however, these are starting as completely unofficial, third-party stats. Leagues themselves keep track of only goals, cards, shutouts, minutes played, and, in some cases, assists. The leagues aren't yet interested in tracking other stats, and those numbers are hard to score at home with pencil and paper.

I haven't seen Capello's formula. If it's both realistic and easy to calculate, it could be a huge step forward for fantasy soccer. The FA has every right to try to keep Capello out of it, but sooner or later the numbers will see the light of day.