London football club employs AI coach for tactical insights

A London football club has appointed an artificial intelligence coach to select its team's formation and tactics.

Non-league Wingate and Finchley FC, who play in the seventh tier of English football, partnered with AI firm The Big Bang Fair to install the AI coach in an effort to get an edge over rivals.

The smart speaker will be linked to a computer and use information spoken to it by coaches to make tactical suggestions and even provide Kevin Keegan-style inspirational quotes.

The manager could, for example, ask Alexa what the best formation would be. The AI would then ask a series of questions about the team and the opponents before proposing an answer.

Alternatively, if a player had just been sent off, the coaches would tell the AI and it could offer a possible substitution.

The AI "coach" is designed to learn on the job, meaning it evolves its thinking over the course of a season based on results.

The new system has been used in training and will have its first outing in the dugout on 9 February for a crunch league match against relegation rivals Whitehawk.

Wingate and Finchley manager Dave Norman told the Press Association the move had been creative and engaging.

He said: "It's been very interesting having an artificial intelligence system working alongside coaches at grassroots level, trying to develop their knowledge and understanding of the game, helping and aiding decision making."

The manager insisted it would be up to the individual manager or coach to decide whether they used the information provided by the AI system.

"It's not going to change football practice, it's not going to take the place of the manager, it's not going to take the place of the coach, but what it can do is support infrastructure and technological changes which we've seen over the last 10 years," said Norman.

Paul Lerman, director of the Isthmian League club, said he hoped the technology would give his club an advantage.

He said: "It's a new technology, we're not expecting it to change the footballing world immediately but it could give us an added edge, it's a coach that could add insight.

"We're hoping it helps us get three points on the pitch, (but) we don't yet know how successful it may be."

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The AI system was commissioned by the Big Bang Fair, the UK's largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths, (Stem) to encourage young people by showcasing how it can be used in the country's most popular sport.

Stuart Haigh of GreenShoot Labs, which created the innovative coach, said the technology was designed to be accessible to smaller clubs.

He said: "We're using pre-existing technology just in terms of what we can leverage through Alexa and its conversational voice AI.

"We wanted to make it nice and presentable and really helpful to the team so we've got inspirational quotes at various intervals and advice if your players have been sent off."

The hope is that the technology will later be made available as an Alexa Skill, meaning anyone – from teachers to young wannabe footballers – can make use of it.

"We’re eager to see what happens when you introduce AI into an environment which is typically not used to having access to it, in this case a non-league football club," said Tim Deeson, of Greenshoot Labs.

"Recent advancements in AI have made it more and more accessible and the upshot of that is we’re seeing artificial intelligence being applied in all sorts of innovative and interesting ways. It’s a really exciting time to be part of the AI industry, but we’ve only just scratched the surface of what is possible."

Additional reporting from agencies.