FIFA offers World Cup teams a shared AI assistant for match analysis

In short: Soccer teams are using far more data and AI at the World Cup, and FIFA is offering every team the same AI assistant to reduce gaps between rich and poor federations.

What's going on

FIFA says it will track about 150 million data points in each match. That includes sensors inside the ball that record about 500 movements per second, which helps trace how the ball travels.

Teams and outside companies are also using AI to turn this flood of information into advice. AI here means software that can quickly spot patterns in huge piles of numbers, a bit like a very fast assistant that watches every moment of every match and takes notes.

Some countries already use these tools for scouting, tactics, and even choosing managers. England, for example, uses AI to study penalty kicks, and officials say work that used to take days can now be done in hours.

FIFA’s response is a tool called Football AI Pro, built with Lenovo. It looks like a ChatGPT-style chat box where coaches can type questions about opponents. It can recreate matches in 3D so staff can view plays from different angles.

What to watch

Cost remains the big issue. Wealthier teams can hire their own software developers and analysts and buy extra tools, while smaller nations may not be able to. FIFA says Football AI Pro is meant to help teams that cannot afford big data staff, but it is not clear if one shared tool can match what the best-funded teams build themselves. Future tournaments may face pressure to set rules on which AI tools teams are allowed to use.

Source: Wired