This week’s article is a continuation of that printed last week. Just to remind readers, two weeks ago, the Daily Mirror published a highly interesting article written by Mark Walters where a report on the future of football was analysed.

This report, commissioned by the telecommunications company Orange, was made by the scientists at Future Laboratory. The latter are a sort of avant-garde fortune tellers who today predict trends for blue-chip businesses.

In the ‘Orange Future of Football Report’ a dossier on ways the game could evolve over the next 20 years was compiled.

Within the report, expert opinion was charted so as to reveal both the central role the advances in communications will have on the game, thereby benefiting players, referees, managers and fans alike and ultimately also to predict how football could look in 2020.

Last week the first part of the report was analysed and many new and innovative things were mentioned. Now the attention will be directed to those aspects within the business of football which is also fast evolving.

Managers (who would easily be termed as ‘Microchip managers’ of the future will have a host of technological and artificial intelligence aids at their fingertips to help make tactical decisions. Managers of the future would not simply trust their instincts.

“With cameras, you can extract an awful lot of information, for example gait (walk) analysis, from quite average CCTV footage,” says Graham Fisher (head of research and development at mobile phone giants Orange). “There are intelligent CCTV cameras that spot unusual behaviour.?

Intelligent cameras will make decisions on which players are not putting in sufficient effort and will, in a way, advise their substitution. These cameras will also use computer data built up over a player’s career to reach a wider and more accurate and informed decision. For example, if a player tends to flag midway through the game but comes up with last-minute goals and assists, the same player may be allowed stay on the pitch.

The cameras could also use pace analysis to understand which players are getting angry by noticing differences in the way they walk, and alert the manager or captain that they might get sent off.

According to this report, there will be less pressure on referees as the pitch of the future will be alive with technology to help referees make the right decision and to keep spectators informed, including robot linesmen designed to spot an offside and light-emitting pitches in the ever-present attempt of trying to minimise/eradicate any human error made by human officials.

Global positioning systems (GPS) will enable real time connectivity between all components of the game, and eradicate human error. Making the wrong the decision about offsides and the ball going out of play will cease to exist because officials will receive accurate, instantaneous feedback about a player or ball’s unique position on the field. This technology and connectivity will aid the overall flow of the game, and enable officials to make correct decision in real time, and lower the frustration of the fans.

The exact point of throw-ins could be worked out by radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in the balls or even by the camera technology. Spotlight systems, similar to giant laser pointers, could mark out such things as the exact place where free kicks need to be taken or even a circle marking out 10 yards for the defensive wall on a free-kick.

This information, interestingly enough for the technical minded, could also be transmitted via light on an intelligent pitch embedded with LEDs able to communicate with impact sensors in balls and boots.

Before the game each player would register his playing boots as home or away. This would mean the pitch could recognise which team’s player had kicked the ball in an offside decision. If players were offside, the pitch would light up in the line where they were thereby giving the exact spot for the free kick to be taken.

Tiny shock-measuring chips embedded in socks and shin pads connected to the RFID chip will be able to detect impact. This will send a signal to the referee’s watch to tell him whether there was contact or not and thus easily exposing players who have a tendency to dive in their quest to draw a foul.

In the future, the report also highlights the possibility that robots could replace referees, using artificial intelligence to make judgments such as whether or not to play the advantage or what level of punishment to give unruly players.

The latest nano technology (a familiar term to those into computing) will be incorporated into football clothing apparel to help heal minor scrapes and improve shirt visibility. It is reported that agion antimicrobial technology is already used in shoes to keep them clean and help prevent athlete’s foot. Nano technology could allow shirts to be made of fabric that can destroy airborne germs and pollutants.

“Several leading footballers are already using nutrient-releasing patches during play which replace the minerals lost by the body during sweating,” says Nick Barber of Umbro. “It is technically possible, through the use of nano technology, that such minerals could be incorporated into the fabric of a football kit and absorbed in the same way. However, this would only work if the kit was in continuous contact with skin so it would have to be tight-fitting.”

Speaking of kits, the future might provide other novelties. “There are all sorts of light-emitting and colour changing fabrics available,” ?says Graham Fisher. “Advertising messages could certainly be uploaded to shirts.” In the future, footballers?shirts will scroll through advertisers, thus maximising advertising revenue. Brands that want an exclusive advertising deal with a club will have to pay a premium.?

Advancements and the synchronisation of various factors like nutrition, technology, data and genetics will enable the player of the future to reach the ultimate peak performance, way beyond what today’s players could ever imagine.

Strength and power training will be revolutionised by new integrated systems which test, monitor and adapt to the individual as they train. These intelligent strength training systems will use electrical stimulation and super-fast motors instead of weights and will assess the players’ metabolic and nervous system capabilities. The system will then optimise the workout according to the goals for the player and his current status, taking all the guesswork out of training.

Combined cryotherapy and magnetic therapy chambers will cut recovery times by as much as 300% facilitating much faster recovery between matches and giving the ability to train more often.

Timed release nutrients will ensure energy is optimised throughout a game and the concept of fatigue resulting from depleted glycogen stored will become history? says David Reddin, a sports consultant for Catalyst and a performance consultant working in football.

“The players will be genetic super-athletes covering up to 50% more distance than today’s players up to 20km per game, speed of movement will increase by 10-15% owing to advances in power training, over-speed training and nervous system nutrition? comments Reddin. Injuries will be almost non-existent due to advances in gene therapy and the ability to predict an injury before it occurs.

As I stated last week, I expect some readers to initially treat these articles as a joke. I do not blame them to the full as I also did likewise initially. Yet, even due to the fact that I am also somewhat involved in computer technology, I then started wondering and noticed that most of the things mentioned in the report are somewhat possible given the fast developments in technology occurring nowadays.

Only time will tell whether this report becomes a fact of life (although there will surely be some opposition on some aspects) or whether it will be just a far-fetched thought.

References

http://www.mirror.co.uk

http://www.orange.co.uk