Like every other sport, the game of football is starting to embrace new ways of technology that continue to revolutionise the Beautiful Game.
While sports organisations like the National Basketball Association (USA’s chief basketball league) and the National Football League (USA’s main American Football organisation) can be considered as trailblazers when it comes to adopting technology, the game of football has always been a bit conservative.
However, performance analysis, data analysis and talent identification are all becoming a key component of any football club agenda.
England’s Premier League club Brentford provide the best example of such scenario.
Back in 2012, Matthew Benham’s objective was not to invest heavily on players randomly but to bring them through analytics.
A concept that became popular following the movie ‘Moneyball’ which recalls the story of Major League Baseball’s franchise Oakland A’s who in order to compete against the top teams such as the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, they used analytics to build a competitive roster.
The idea was to identify profiles that fit Brentford’s style of play through key performance indicators such as Expected Goals (a KPI that determines the quantity and quality of chances created during a match).
Just like in the case of the Brentford example, it takes an innovative person to change the methodology in this field.
This is where Center for Sport Excellence (CSE) come into place in Malta.
The CSE has forged a partnership with the prestigious International Professional Scouting Organisation (IPSO).
Between June 24 and June 26, CSE will be teaming up with IPSO for a series of training courses on Football Scouting and Analysis in Malta.
The workshops and seminars will be held at the Cavalieri Art Hotel in St Julians.
On June 25 and 26th, a football scouting and analysis course, focusing on Talent Identification (Grassroots) will be delivered at the Cavalieri Art Hotel, St Julian’s. This course is aimed for the local football players, coaches, administrators and sport journalists.
Moreover on Friday, June 24, a set of four workshops related to Football Analysis will be held.
The four themes forming up this workshop will be ‘Investigating Bias in Scouting’, ‘Evaluating Young Players and Team Shapes’, ‘Exploring Detailed Player Analysis’ and ‘Analysis Match Reporting’. These workshops will be attended by participants from the local football community who will be invited directly by CSE.
The highlight of these courses will be on Saturday (9am-4pm) and Sunday (9am-1pm) where IPSO will be holding a two-day course specifically on Talent Identification in Football.
“The Center for Sports Excellence partnered up with the International Professional Scouting Organisation with the aim of organising two events related to analysis and scouting,” Martin Borg, founder and CEO of CSE, told the Times of Malta.
“Our focus is the Talent Identification which keeps an eye on the development of a player from grassroots level up to the first-team category.
“Our target audience is obviously football-related whether they are coaches, players, administrators and journalists.”
Borg explained how these courses will go into depth in the sophisticated procedures which will allow the participants to adopt a more professional evaluation when they head back to their football jobs.
“What makes this course more interesting is that the IPSO will base their examples on case studies and other situations which generated through their years of working,” he said.
Asked about the interest that this course has generated so far, Borg was pleased about the feedback they are receiving and is confident that these lectures by the IPSO will be a success.
“The football community in Malta is responding well to these innovative courses,” Borg explained.
“This pragmatic idea put forward by the CSE is part of our mission where we provide valuable education and training lessons.
“That is part of our strategy and that is why we team up with institutions like IPSO. Following this event, we are already focusing on the upcoming one which will be related to E-sports, having also reached an agreement with World Pro Racing.”
The CSE is also on the forefront in other sports after recently reaching other agreements with the Royal Malta Golf Club and the Malta Motorsport Federation.
These collaborations are also part of the fruition of the CSE’s partnership with the Maltese Olympic Committee as Borg’s venture continues to solidify in the sporting industry.
Anyone interested to register in the course can log to https://forms.gle/2WwXntEWPxwDGVsf9.
For more information about the course: https://centerforsportexcellence.com/ipso-course/.
