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AI Home » News » Deep Tech » AI » Tech and the World Cup: 7 Ways AI Has
Transformed Football


TECH AND THE WORLD CUP: 7 WAYS AI HAS TRANSFORMED FOOTBALL

by Radostin Dimitrov 22 November 2022 7 mins read Qatar



Image credit: Unsplash: Emilio Garcia
Doha, Qatar ~

“The Hand of God” goal. Diego Maradona’s shot against England in the
quarterfinal match at the 1986 World Cup is one of the most controversial events
in football to this day. But much has changed in the beloved, intense and
nail-biting game in the last 36 years. Now that football fans all around the
world shift their focus to the biggest sports event in the world – The FIFA
World Cup, we take a look at how much technology has impacted their favorite
sport. 

The adoption of AI in football has made running a successful team much about
reading and acting on data sets. Maradona’s type of controversies will stay in
football history. But it makes us wonder if the ultimate goal of tech adoption
in sports is to make the game fairer or keep football clubs profitable. 

With that in mind, The Recursive has prepared an analysis of 7 ways in which AI
is forever changing how football is played. 


#1 SCOUTING AND RECRUITING TALENT

There is a lot of talent running around the football fields in every country,
but the places on the rosters of the world’s best teams is limited and there is
always the chance that someone may not make the final cut, purely because there
wasn’t a team scout who watched him play. AiSCOUT, an England based startup,
which allows amateur players to take videos of themselves practicing and doing
different exercises for stamina, durability and skills, gives scouts the
necessary information to make the decision whether they want the player or not. 

As AiSCOUTS CEO Darren Peries told Forbes: “It’s all about players seizing
opportunities. There are players who will never be scouted and we’re using
technology to reach these players.” An example of how this AI system has helped
amateur players get recruited, is given by Ben Greenwood.  He used AiSCOUTS and
now he is playing for his favorite childhood team – Chelsea, and his home
country national team of Ireland.

The use of AI in football for scouting is further exemplified by Bulgarian
sports analytics company Ensk.ai. They are also working on a next-generation
football recruitment analytics tool. Using a combination of advanced statistical
models, artificial intelligence, and understanding of the football club’s
individual needs, philosophies, and team dynamics, the startup aims to reduce
transfer waste and identify the right talent. The company is backed by the
Bulgarian venture capital fund Morningside Hill.

Read more:  Innovation outside the capital: Looking for the next wave of
emerging startups in cities across Bulgaria

 


#2 IMPROVING COACHES’ DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Just before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the stakes could not be higher. There
are major contenders, who are desperate to beat France and take their spot as
champions of the world. But with this, there is always the chance of human
error, in particular a coach’s error, which can be devastating for the outcome
of the game. Therefore, more football clubs are using AI to keep track and
analyze their games as a team, every individual player’s performance, and even
how their competitors play. Thus, the coach has good insights into what he needs
to improve and how he can do this, lowering the risk of human misconceptions. 

One club implementing this strategy is the Scottish Glasgow Rangers. They are
working together with Hudl, which analyzes and improves the strategies based on
the clubs past performance in the league.

The Bulgarian football performance data company Ubitrack, founded in 2019, uses
automated data extraction technologies and solutions to aid football clubs in
their pursuit of finding the best performing players. Based on that data,
football clubs can assess their teams’ performance, identify areas to improve,
and also analyze the competition.

 


#3 WEARABLES TO MONITOR PLAYERS’ HEALTH

The most important thing in every sport is how players perform. How they handle
the ball and accelerate, how much distance they cover in a game, and the list
goes on. Keeping a precise track of all those elements was relatively hard up
until the use of AI in football. 

Now wearables enter the field to change that. The brand C-Exoskeleton is
developing a knee pad, helping coaches and managers to keep track of their
players performances. 

. The players are wearing AI-assisted vests, which show their health indicators
on a computer located on the bench. A certain player’s heart rate becomes
awfully high and the coach decides to sub him out to get some rest, because he
will be an important part of the team in their next game. 

Read more:  Ex-Telerik Vesko Kolev on a Mission to Smooth the Transition to
Entrepreneurship

 


#4 TOOLS THAT PREDICT INJURIES

In football, as in every other sport, injuries are the biggest setback for
upcoming starts. When you play sports in a professional and competitive setting,
you are expected to perform at your best abilities because of the pay you are
receiving and if you do not perform well, the club cannot generate a profit.
Moreover, some injuries can be lethal. With the implementation of AI in football
and other sports, coaches know when a player is projected to get injured and
they can decide what to do in the situation. This method also predicts when the
player will be healthy enough to resume practicing and play at a high level.

 


#5 GOAL LINE, OFFSIDES, AND FOUL-PREVENTION TECHNOLOGY

Going back to the infamous “Hand of God goal”, maybe the history timeline of
soccer would have been a whole lot different, if we had all the technology we
use today. 

This year, the 2022 FIFA World Cup will implement a new type of goal line
technology, which will send the decision to the referee, instead of him needing
to look at the camera and decide on his own. This is believed to remove human
error out of the equation, and lead to more fear matches. 

Offsides have also brought a great deal of controversy to football. In most
games, there is at least one offside which is or isn’t called correctly by the
sideline officials, which can have a big impact on the end result. FIFA has
announced that for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, they will be using a 100% better
VAR for offsides and awarding fouls. It will be fully automatic, sending real
time signals to the control room of the stadium, where a computer will recreate
the situation with 3D models, drawing the offside line and determining whether
the goal should be awarded or not. Every bit of information will be communicated
with the sideline officials, which eliminates the possibility of human error.

Read more:  Bunnyshell, a Romanian cloud infrastructure startup, gets €1.1M
funding

If you have watched at least one game of soccer in your life, you have seen the
players, after being awarded a foul, moving the ball from the place that they
got fouled. This happens with penalties as well, but in the 2022 World Cup that
would be no longer possible. FIFA has announced that there will be a microchip
inside the Al Rihla, the official ball for the tournament and that will allow
the officials to know the exact place they would need to put the ball in, after
a foul. This microchip is also going to contribute to the semi-automatic
offside, by showing exactly when the player touched the ball.

 


#6 CONTROLLING THE TEMPERATURE AT THE STADIUMS AND PREDICT FANS SWELLING

The game of football has been a reason for a huge amount of fights between fans,
crowds going out of control and people illegally entering stadiums to watch
matches. This FIFA World Cup, it is estimated that 1.2 million people are going
to Qatar to see their country battle it out for the most important trophy in the
world. To prevent crowds from fighting and breaking the law, more than 100
technicians will be working from the capital, Doha, using AI-enabled facial
recognition, fully automated doors and cameras, which will guide people to avoid
collisions between fans. There will be more than 200,000 integrated units spread
equally in the 8 World Cup stadiums, keeping track of the behavior of their fans
and “controlling the crowd”.  

 


#7 BROADCASTING OF GAMES

The use of AI in football can also be seen in broadcasting. The platform Pixelot
uses AI-driven cameras, which follow all the moving objects that are on the
field without the need of a human operator, thus allowing the platform to stream
more games that otherwise would have never been seen from people, who are not at
the stadium. Their primary focus is soccer, but they also broadcast basketball
and hockey. 

The platform was founded in 2014 and some of their clients include second
leagues in Mexico and Germany.


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Updated: 22 November 2022
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