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Chapter 1: What is the significance of AI in the 2026 World Cup?
Hey there, you're listening to Science Friday. I'm Jane Lindholm. I'm the host of a kids' science show called But Why at Vermont Public. And this week, I'm filling in on Science Friday. The 2026 World Cup is finally here. It's already the largest tournament in World Cup history, with 48 teams battling it out.
But FIFA and the tech giant Lenovo are also trying to make it the most high-tech tournament ever. with the launch of Football AI Pro, which is designed to analyze over 2,000 different metrics to coaches, players, and analysts.
Chapter 2: How does Football AI Pro enhance soccer analytics?
But can AI capture everything that happens on the field? And what does AI integration actually mean for the game? Here to discuss with us is Ryan O'Hanlon, staff writer at ESPN and author of Net Gains, Inside the Beautiful Games Analytics Revolution. Ryan, it's nice to talk with you.
Hey, Jane. Thanks for having me.
Can you just like tick off all or some of at least the new AI features that FIFA is rolling out for this World Cup?
Chapter 3: What new AI features are being introduced for refereeing?
Yes. So they say most of the AI features are around refereeing and improving the refereeing process. So some 3D modeling using what they are saying player avatars to be more accurate in terms of calling offside, also being able to determine whether the ball has gone out of bounds for a throw in or a corner kick. There's also a sensor in the ball.
And then they also have the AI tool that you've talked about, which is delivering various metrics, which they've said will democratize the use of AI among all the teams at the World Cup.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said a couple of months ago, though, that, quote, we are ensuring that innovation benefits every player, every team and every fan everywhere in the world. So it sounds like they're trying to make it sort of infiltrate the whole game.
Yeah, I think Gianni Infantino is the first... He'll be the first person to jump on any trend that is happening in the world. And AI is the big thing that people seem to be excited about.
Chapter 4: How does AI democratize analytics for World Cup teams?
So Gianni Infantino wants us all to think that AI is going to transform the World Cup for us for the better. But if I had to venture, I think... the result of all this AI talk for fans will less be an improved experience and more be annoyance with hearing the phrase AI over and over again.
Oh, no. So it's not so much for the fans, in your interpretation, at least.
Yeah, I don't think so. I think that there will probably be all kinds of new metrics that are thrown at us throughout the tournament. But I think those metrics will, as they tend to be very context-free, black box produced, and also, as tends to be the case with a lot of soccer statistics you see on television...
Chapter 5: What challenges do teams face with data analysis in soccer?
just not connected to winning and what actually predicts what wins games in any kind of real way will be my guess. I'm happy to be proven wrong, though.
Yeah, you mentioned that, you know, that piece democratizing the game is sort of a buzzword. Is there a benefit to having this spread out across all the teams in the World Cup? You know, whether or not it's for the fans, is there a benefit to the teams?
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I do think making analytical tools or data available to more teams is a good thing in general. But at the World Cup, you're limited by who was born in your country or nationalized to play for your team or who your country colonized or has a military base in at some point.
So you're limited, like there's no scouting benefits to data in international soccer. While that's kind of the main benefit of data analysis in all sports is like figuring out who's actually good at the sport. So that doesn't apply as much here. And so I think with the data for the games in particular, I think there's a very real question about how actionable or useful any of that data will be.
Because of one, what is the data exactly? Two, how able is anyone at any of these federations to quickly model this data in any real way connected to being predictive? And then three, like the World Cup, as much as we hate to admit it, it's very small sample size in an incredibly random sport. So extracting signal from noise, I think, with 2000 data points would be very difficult as well.
Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because the football AI pro has sort of been framed as this like coach on the sidelines that's going to be really helpful in real time. Is that going to be as helpful as maybe what, you know, what it's being framed as?
Yeah, I think, you know, coaches have a very interesting place in soccer where they're kind of viewed as these all powerful figures, but also soccer coaches have the least amount of power of any coach in any sport because the half starts and then it ends. You're allowed to make subs, but you can yell from the sidelines, Ryan.
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Chapter 6: What is the importance of uniform turf in soccer matches?
They can, you know, show their displeasure with their faces.
Yes. And I feel bad for whatever wing player is playing on the same side of the field as his coach's bench. You know, it's always better to be on the other side where you just can act like you can't hear what he's saying. But I think like I have a hard time seeing how any kind of. data in like, let's say a 30 minute span, right? Half's 45 minutes, something happens over 30 minutes.
I have a really hard time envisioning how AI can, what is it going to tell a coach that would allow the coach to essentially change his team's formation? I guess that would be the main way that you could change up, that a coach wouldn't already see. Or how would we know that that information is not just random chance by like the bounce of the ball, versus like a structural issue with the team.
So if one attacker is dribbling past a defender like five different times and the AI is like weakness detected, I think a coach has already seen that. So yeah, I have a hard time seeing how there will be real actionable data given just the structure of soccer in real time.
Are there any areas where these new technologies and AIs is actually changing or being beneficial to the game?
Yeah, so I know I've probably sounded like a, you know, Luddite, nihilistic, we don't, none of this matters person, but I actually do believe that, like,
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Chapter 7: How is perfect grass grown for the World Cup stadiums?
data can be used to make better decisions in soccer. I do. But I think, so the one thing that you've seen change, so soccer is just a very dynamic sport, right? There's barely any rules, 22 players. If teams wanted to, they could agree to stare at the ball for 45 minutes and no one could do anything to stop it. The fans would be booing and the ref would be like, I can't do anything, sorry.
They're just standing around. But there is an aspect of the sport, corner kicks, throw-ins, set pieces, that does sort of start to resemble American sports a lot more, mainly because the game comes to a halt, the players can discuss what they're going to do, and the coach, if he wants to, he can draw up a pre-designed play, right?
You have a corner kick, you can tell the players where they're supposed to run, who's going to set a pick, and sort of data analysis over time has found that this is a very underexploited area. Some teams... have been very good at it without getting worse at other areas of the game.
If you look at Liverpool, who's kind of one of the more sort of smarter teams in the Premier League, they collaborated with Google DeepMind and they created this app where you can kind of show where your players are on the field for a corner kick versus the defense. And then the AI-based app will be like, no, actually the positioning of the players, this would lead to a goal slightly more often.
So I think that is like the one area, because it's such an isolated part of the game. that is prone for AI to potentially add even more value. But what's happened, both in for good and ill, I would say. So set piece scoring, corner kicks, throw-ins, it's at a higher rate than it's ever been since we've been recording this data.
But then open play goal scoring is at a lower rate than it's ever been.
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Chapter 8: What are the criteria for selecting grass types in different climates?
Because if you're lining up a corner kick and being very specific about the details and where you want the ball to go, It takes a lot of time to figure that out. And the clock doesn't stop. So in the Premier League this season, the ball is in play less than it's ever been since they've been recording the data.
So like the part of soccer that people tend to fall in love with, which is not set plays, it's kind of the creative on the fly thinking there's less of that than ever before.
At what point does the AI and all of the analytics and all of the ability to, in all of these sports where we're seeing analytics play such a big role these days, wind up tipping the balance away from a fan experience?
Yeah, I think if fans are going to be able to see an offside decision within the margin of one centimeter being correct, they're not going to care if all the other aspects of soccer are gone. I'm just kidding. But I think that's a great question. But it's something that's happened in a lot of the other major sports. Baseball is run by all people that went to Ivy League schools.
The data analysis is way beyond anything you would see in public. And they realized that it made the sport worse because it was all home runs and strikeouts. The ball was never in play. So there is a definite, like, it's the league's and governing body's responsibility to make sure the sport is fun, and it's the team's responsibilities to try to find out how to win.
And you have to try to figure out a way to make those things balance. Before the age of data analysis, this wasn't as much of an issue, I don't think. Now it is. Soccer...
like is way behind all the other sports in terms of like how objective analysis is being employed but the set pieces did catch on and it was enough of a story in the premier league and the team that won the league arsenal set the record for um corner kick goals in a season they played a very conservative style
it became enough of a story that I think it's like a very real thing that people are aware of. But I think, you know, given that it happened in the Premier League, if it happens at the World Cup, I think it could become an even bigger story and then it could kind of be a thing that the soccer world will be unable to ignore and will have to
Well, speaking of the beauty of the sport, you just wrote a very detailed article where you predicted the winner of the World Cup and the winner of like almost every single game and by how much. And you did it all by hand. Why?
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