Artificial intelligence leaves its mark in the World Cup clubs

Football witnessed a radical transformation that exceeded the boundaries of the green rectangle, driven by a wave of modern technologies that reshaped the features of the game in a way that exceeds the human mind.

The current version of the Club World Cup, hosted by the United States, and ends on July 13, continued to confirm that football has become an accurate flag run by algorithms, and is enhanced by advanced data and analyzes, with the appearance of cameras installed on the bodies of referees, to record footage from the perspective of the referee, so that selected footage of them is broadcast live to the fans, which provides them with a new vision of the match.

These cameras are also used during assistant video referee reviews (Var), to check the ruling at the time of review of cases.

This new camera, which was previously tested during the Intercontinental 2024 Cup, and many FIFA youth championships, are applied in all the World Cup matches, to approve its formal use in the future.

Over the past 14 years, the football rode has evolved rapidly, after storming advanced technology in all its forms, and it controls the details of the game, whether inside or outside the green rectangle.

Data analysis

The major clubs have become unprecedented, as each movement is analyzed for players through advanced programs, such as “OPTA” and “Statsbomb”, to provide accurate visions about performance, fitness, strengths and weaknesses, and artificial intelligence is used to determine the most appropriate switch and expect matches.

Manchester City is at the forefront of international clubs that use artificial intelligence programs to analyze players’ movements, physical pregnancy, and playing patterns, through an internal data laboratory to support the decisions of its Spanish coach Pep Guardiola.

Real Madrid also uses artificial intelligence through technical companies to analyze players ’performance, physical expectations and injuries. The German club Leipzig targets this technology in discovering and developing talents.

The football talents are no longer discovered only through the eyes of the two scouts, but artificial intelligence has become a key partner in monitoring promising players by analyzing videos, and matching artistic and physical patterns with former stars.

Thanks to this technology, the Liverpool Data Analysis team was able to discover Mohamed Salah’s talent before joining the Reds, in 2017, as performance algorithms showed that the Egyptian player produces high scoring opportunities regularly even in medium teams, and Liverpool also succeeded in discovering the talent of Senegalese, Sadio Mane, who was not a brilliant name at the time he played in Southampton, but the graphic analysis showed Its perfect harmony with high pressure style.

Dozens of players were also chosen in such a way, after algorithms showed a high repetition of their effective moves, including Nigerian Victor Osman, who was discovered by the scouts dependent on artificial intelligence programs, and showed his high capabilities to move inside the box.

Smart jackets and tracking devices

Smart jackets equipped with GPS devices have become an integral part of the team’s training, where the heartbeat, running rate, physical effort, and fatigue indicators, which helps technical devices to control training loads with extreme accuracy, helps in preventing injuries, improving individual and group performance, and Arsenal English club is the first to use smart jackets in 2011 under the supervision of the French coach Arsene Wenger, who was a pioneer in introducing sports science into English football.

English clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City began to adopt this technology during the period since 2012. At the international level, Germany was one of the first to use it intensively during their preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

Virtual reality in training and analysis

Some of the leading clubs use the virtual reality to train players to make decisions in pressure situations, while augmented reality technology provides unprecedented visual analysis capabilities, allowing players to see the stadium from multiple angles, and expect discount moves.

VAR technology

The “VAR” technology has made a fundamental shift in the management of matches, as it enabled the referees to review decisive decisions such as goals, penalty kicks and red cards, despite the controversy that raised it about the rhythm of the match, but it contributed to reducing the margin of human error, putting justice at the heart of competition.

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Khaled Obaid: Our clubs are outside the scope of algorithms

Sports analyst former football director at Al -Nasr Club, Khaled Obaid, confirmed that the algorithms enhanced by advanced data and analyzes are not present in local clubs, and they were not fully applied or even partial in the process of selecting the players.

Obaid told «Emirates Today»: “Talking about the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques in contracts and the discovery of players is a beautiful matter on paper only, but the reality is completely different. Most of our clubs do not have the technical structure or specialized competencies to apply these analytical models.”

He added: “Such programs need a very high financial cost that our clubs cannot bear, unlike European clubs, and they will also need to use experts specializing in managing this technology.”

He pointed out: “Our clubs still depend on intuition and personal relationships, and the mechanisms for choosing players are limited to their agents, and this makes the process of selecting the players confined to some people who have a direct interest in marketing their players, and this method impedes the shift towards methods that depend on data analysis systematically.”

He continued: “It cannot be denied that advanced technology has become an essential part of modern football, but we are still late in this race. There is a need for institutional plan and support to adopt these methods at the club level.”

He explained: “Yes, that technology needs large money, but it is in fact an investment cost that will provide millions of dirhams that are wasted on inaccurate contracts.”

Khaled Obaid concluded his statements: “We need to change the culture of contracts from within, whenever decision makers are convinced in clubs of the importance of such advanced technologies, only then the algorithms will be used as a tool for the difference in the difference.”

• Football has become an accurate science managed by algorithms and enhanced by advanced data and analyzes.