For years football fans up and down the country have often argued the merits of particular players in matches and very rarely have you found a whole section of football fans agreeing on the merits of one player over another (see the last week on the message board as a clear example) Well now with the intriduction of ACTIM stats, fans will have a chance to see what the stats say before deciding that so and so is crap or so and so is indispensable.

As with all forms of statistical analysis, the figures will be open to debate about the accuracy of them but some sad people are going to analyse every game played in the four main English divisions and the top flight in Scotland and show us the results of their findings. For many seasons the newspapers have published the Carling Opta stats, ACTIM will not take the place of these.

Using data collected exclusively by The Press Association during every Barclay Premiership, Coca-Cola Football League and Bank of Scotland Premier League match, ACTIM Stats will provide football enthusiasts with detailed information on teams, players and officials. The stats will be provided to a wide market including television, national and regional newspapers, magazines, websites and mobile phone companies.

David Folker, General Manager of Football DataCo said "We decided to apply the ACTIM Stats brand across all three domestic leagues to ensure that the official data is available, reliable, accurate and familiar to football fans."

Player and team profiles, head-to-heads and match statistics will be part of the ACTIM Stats, while the ACTIM Index, a player ranking system developed in partnership with Salford University will identify the best performers in the Barclay Premiership, Coca-Cola Football League and the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

The ACTIM Index allocates a match score to each player, drawing on a wide range of actions including shots, dribbles, tackles, crosses, saves, clearances, blocks, interceptions and cards. The ACTIM Index rating also factors in time on the pitch and the number of points won by the team for that match. From analysis carried out on hundreds of games since the start of the Barclay Premiership in 1992, the actions measured have been statistically and scientifically proven to contribute towards winning performances. This new system will also be applied across the Coca Cola Football League and Bank of Scotland Premier League.

Andy Elliott, Head of Sport at The Press Association explained the rationale behind the ACTIM Index.

"English and Scottish football needs a credible ranking system. The ACTIM Index will serve as the benchmark for player performance. Its strength lies in that it only uses factual actions that have a direct bearing on the outcome of a match. Football is all about opinion; the ACTIM Index and ACTIM Stats will generate talking points for the media and football fans alike."

So there you go, no longer will we have to worry about whether we think Roberto Martinez will be in the side or not, the stats will simply tell us and the role of a football manager will become a thing of the past with the statistics picking his side for him. And if you believe that then you truly will believe anything!

Bring it on, let the debates commence!