The Future of Sports Analytics: World Football

Sports Analytics has become more and more popular in recent years with the incredible amounts of money being paid to teams and players. With billions of dollars at stake in today’s sports industry, teams are trying to take any advantage they can get over their opponents by maximizing the performance of their athletes and teams. Major American sports such as basketball, football and baseball have heavily delved into analytics to get the most out of players and improve performances. However, one sport that has been relatively untapped in the sports analytics industry has been the world’s most popular game. Football, or soccer as it is known in the US is by far the most played and popular sport in the world. Analytics have not been utilized to its full potential in world football. The purpose of this paper is to explore why that is and how analytics can be used to benefit the global game going forward.