There is an informative interview on the Beyond the Pitch website with John Coulson and Duncan Alexander of Opta Sports about the collection of data in football and its growing use in the sport.  Anto (the host), John, and Duncan talk for about 30 minutes on Opta's growth in the football industry, its data collection process, and the current state of soccer analytics and the transition from data to actionable intelligence.  It's worth a listen.