Football lovers around the world refer to the sport as an “art form” or a “religion”, but is it Football becoming scientific.
Many teams over the ages have had playing styles/ philosophies that can be described as art forms. Such as the Netherlands national team of the 70’s and their dynamic “Total Football”, Brazil national team and their spontaneous “Joga Bonito” , Barcelona fc and their seamless passing “Tiki Taka”.
Football can also be described as type of religion as supporters idolise teams and players, whilst also finding a form of family in supporter groups and common purpose in supporting their teams. This can quiet easily be seen in teams such as Liverpool with their “Never Walk Alone” team song and cross city derbies such as Inter and AC Milan were a whole city stops for a Football match.
Now Football is being looked at, no sorry, analysed in a more scientific manner. With Danish champions FC Midtjylland attributing their league win to their use of statistics and analysis (link). FIFA has also recently passed a motion to allow wearable technology during matches which has pleased sport scientists globally (link). Statistic aren’t new, having been apart of our game for a while now in Australia (link). In saying this stats are playing a bigger role in our game these days with coaching departments crunching more and more numbers.
