Clubs not embracing the new era of artificial intelligence risk being left behind with the impacts set to be wide-ranging
Matt Majendie2 minutes ago
QPR’s relegation at the end of the 2012-13 season acted as an unlikely precursor of sorts to the introduction of artificial intelligence in football.
At the start of the season, midfielder Esteban Granero arrived amid fanfare from Real Madrid but was unable to halt the club’s drop from the top flight.
He returned to Spain the following season, first on loan with Real Sociedad before joining permanently. While there, he befriended a team analyst, who found himself unsure what to make of the reams of data he had at his disposal.
Granero’s solution was perhaps atypical to that of his peers. “I took the data and started asking clever people about it,” he recalls. “I went to universities and asked professors about artificial intelligence, as I felt AI could improve data analysis, as in other industries.”
By 2016, he had founded Olocip, an early entry into football AI used to aid decision making when it comes to signing players and also around in-game decisions.
Source : https://onefootball.com/en/news/virtual-coaches-and-scouting-apps-how-the-ai-revolution-is-transforming-footballs-future-38608623
