Schemes on corners and shin guards, artificial intelligence already plays football – Football

MILANO – Player recruitment, injury prevention, tactical schemes and individual game situations. There is no aspect of football that artificial intelligence cannot study and shape, according to the criterion of useful choice, on the basis of enormous quantities of data. “Being a generalist technology, artificial intelligence is destined to impact every area of ​​human action. And football is interesting for two reasons: the enormous interest it arouses and the competitive dynamic, which makes the results measurable”, summarizes Guido Di Fraiavice-rector of the IULM University of Milan and director of the AI ​​laboratory. Not a week goes by without a new collaboration being announced between software houses, clubs, leagues or companies in the sector. Some in the pioneering phase. Others, now structured.

Artificial intelligence and scouting: experimentation in Seville

Il Seville developed with IBM Scout Advisorartificial intelligence tool based on Watsonxa platform launched in 2023 by the New York company. The tool allows you to improve the scouting process by combining data from over 200 thousand player reports. According to the president of Sevilla, José María del Nido Carrasco“represents a turning point in recruiting.” For Ana Paula AssisGeneral Manager at IBM EMEA“the objective is to make the criteria based on which to choose one player and not another reliable and explainable”.

The aim is to identify the right person for each role discovered, according to criteria already used by artificial intelligence for personnel selection. Except that instead of qualifications and work experience, the system evaluates running ability, balls touched and tendency to injuries.

The smart shin guards designed in Italy

With the same purpose, he developed his own tool Soccermentan Italian advanced football analytics company founded by Aldo Comiwhich has also partnered with the Mls americana with the aim of improving the performance of young players through advanced technological solutions. In addition to the analysis platform XVALUESoccerment has indeed patented XSEEDsmart shin guards which, thanks to various sensors, detect and transmit to software information on the position on the pitch, speed, power and frequency of ball touches of each player. In Serie A he uses them Lorenzo Colombo of Empoli. “We can detect and transmit data in a scalable and therefore economical way, without needing someone to physically update the statistics by hand,” says Comi.

In Liverpool, the corner schemes are indicated by the AI

The best-known application of artificial intelligence to football was born from the collaboration between Liverpool e Google DeepMindwhich they developed TacticAIa system that analyzes set pieces to optimize game tactics. Starting from an initial database collected in the analysis of over 7 thousand corner kicks, the system is constantly evolving and provides suggestions on how to position the players and where to direct the ball. At the end of last season, the Liverpool communicated that the indications of TacticAI were effective in 90 percent of cases, advising the coach, who was then Jurgen Kloppwinning strategies both in attack and defense. On the other hand, Google had already developed an artificial intelligence capable of beating in 2019 Lee Se-dolat the time world champion of the board game Go, made famous in the West by the novel Shibumi Of The Trevanian. The machine won thanks to counterintuitive strategies that, to human logic, seemed senseless. An approach that TacticAI is trying to bring back to every game plan, including football.

Cristiano’s bracelet and the legal implications

Moving from tactics to muscles, the use of virtual training assistants, on the model of, is increasingly widespread among athletes Whoopbracelet that monitors sleep, stress, effort and recovery, used since its beta version by Cristiano Ronaldotoday ambassador of the company which reached 800 employees at the end of 2023. Today there are almost as many match analysts for the twenty clubs Premier Leaguethe richest league in Europe and the first to have understood the importance of data in football. Today, game analysts are joined by new figures, such as gaming experts machine learningcharged with nurturing, interrogating and developing the AI ​​tools. An activity that often also involves companies’ law firms. “The increasingly extensive use of data poses legal and contractual problems – he says Federico Venturi Ferriolopartner of LCA law firm – by analyzing heartbeats, blood oxygenation, general state of health, an artificial intelligence can predict a player’s career prospect. Is it legitimate for an employer to do this? And who owns the data? These are complex issues, which pose new challenges for those who create and apply the rules.”