Academic Journal (Frontiers in Sports and Active Living) - 2025

Teixeira, José E.;Maio, Eduardo;Afonso, Pedro;Encarnação, Samuel;Machado, Guilherme F.;Morgans, Ryland;Barbosa, Tiago M.;Monteiro, António M.;Forte, Pedro;Ferraz, Ricardo;Branquinho, Luís

https://research.ebsco.com/c/462pgp/viewer/html/tysvjhw6pj

Article Aims

This journal looks how artificial intelligence  is being used to study and improve football tactics and team dynamics such as how players move, interact and make decisions on the field.

Key Findings

Artificial intelligence can easily identify the teams formations, styles of play and coordination patterns. As well as this it can predict the match outcomes, a players performance and opportunities for scoring goals. This helps coaches make more data driven tactical decisions and anaylse the opponents strengths and weaknesses. It highlights how AI can be used to accurate formation anaylsis, detecting the teams usual shape as well as their expected possession value and how their ball possession is different in different areas of the pitch. As well as formation, AI can also help look at defensive tactics and identify pressing and position patterns

However the use during matches, it can still be limited to use in real time and there is many ethical concerns about data ownership and player privacy.

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Summarising negative impacts or concerns

• Highlights that while AI has advanced tactical analysis in football, there is also a risk of regressing aspects of the sport if misused.
• There is a lot of ethical issues such as having a lack of clear guidelines and standards for how it should be used. It needs to have more transparent ai models
• There is concern also over data fairness and inequality as AI systems often depend on datasets from elite men’s football, leaving major gaps in youth and womens football, making the already existing inequality bigger and insight that isnt inclusive.
• Deep learning models can capture complex tactical behaviour but can be hrd to interpret, potentially leading to misguided tactical decisions if coaches rely on AI outputs.
• Data privacy issues
• AI could unintentionally undermine creativity, inclusivity and trust in football analysis. </aside>

“This tactical dynamic transcends the boundaries of the game, offering a glimpse into the intricate world of sports analytics, where spatiotemporal data and data analytics converge to unlock the secrets of victory.”