'The Beautiful Game' falls for AI's charms

Warsaw-based Re.Spo Vision, which says it is unique in gathering data by using AI, has two immediate goals - women's football and re-igniting Generation Z's interest in watching sports, their co-founder Pawel Osterreicher told 'AFP'.

The company - which numbers the South American football body CONMEBOL and their Central American counterparts CONCACAF among their clients - are able to capture data from matches from just a single camera angle.

This makes gathering data much cheaper, as players do not need to wear any technology, and there is no need for multiple cameras to capture the data, thanks to AI.

Re.Spo Vision's programme - which was used at last year's Copa America - was recently awarded FIFA certification. Osterreicher says AI can provide data on aspects of football that humans cannot, such as acceleration, passing lanes, heat maps and zones of control.

He said the data can help the 'Goliaths' as well as the 'Davids', just as it did by assisting in second-tier side Wisla Krakow's giantkilling exploits on their way to lifting the Polish Cup in 2024.

However, despite this run of success the 36-year-old says he and his colleagues are not aiming for the men's World Cup or this year's men's World Club Cup.

Instead they are targeting covering the inaugural women's World Club Cup in 2028, which fits in nicely with another of their aims, to halt the haemorrhage of Generation Z - people born from 1997 to 2012 -- watching sports.

"What we see right now in the sports market in general is that women's sport grows at a much faster pace," he said. "Of course, from a lower base, but a much faster pace than men's sport.

"You can argue that men's is saturated. But one of the best investment opportunities and development opportunities in sports are currently women's franchises, women's sport and all the media around it."

'More with less'

Osterreicher says this could be a way to reboot the interest of younger viewers "who are flocking away". The young "expect to get excited immediately... I have five seconds and if not, I'm swiping away.

"So women's sport is also potentially an opportunity for sport to attract younger audiences because maybe it's just too boring just to watch all the same setups, all the same guys," he said.

"So lots of investment is being directed in women's sports and from our perspective as well. We're agnostic. Human is a human. We capture data on humans, not on particular genders.

"But definitely, more and more customers are asking us to just cover women's leagues." Osterreicher - who along with his colleagues set up the company five years ago - says he is a "realist", adding not everyone should use the technology as it is a "complex thing, it requires certain resources."

Nevertheless Wisla's cup victory showed that you "can do more with less". "You can have a smaller team wisely using technology and then beating the big guys," he said.

He added, though, that it is not a "silver bullet" as human frailties can come into play. "A player might have had a row with his wife and be off his game," he said.

While this technology is already tried and tested, Osterreicher and his team are months away from dealing another card to try and claw back the young audience, whose loyalty has switched to TikTok, Netflix and other platforms.

"The way for sports to address it is to create content which is much more to their liking," he said. "So you can recreate a game in 3D, which is what we are planning to do.

"So imagine a legendary goal being scored, or any goal being scored, and you switch to a replay from player perspective. So we are potentially entering the world where sport needs to reinvent itself a little bit, change the way it's being served, in order to not lose those people to TikToks and the video games and mobile games of the world."