STATSports

Nice piece in last week's fcbusiness Magazine with Tom Allen & Phil Keehne MSc, looking at how performance teams are using GPS data to help keep players available across a season. Both bringing different perspectives from their work at Arsenal and FC Cincinnati, but a lot of the principles remain the same. Getting an understanding of the demands placed on each player, putting the numbers into the context of what actually happened on the pitch and using that information to make better decisions around training, recovery and return to play. Some really useful insight into what that looks like day-to-day at the elite level. 👇

Great to be in attendance at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Technology Conference in Kuala Lumpur last week, alongside Sony Sports colleagues from Hawk-Eye Innovations & Beyond Sports. Three days bringing together representatives from across the AFC’s member associations, professional leagues and the wider football technology industry to explore how technology continues to shape the game. Our team were on the ground showcasing our Apex 2.0 and Sonra technology, speaking with federations and practitioners from across Asia about the role of performance data within their own environments. A valuable few days of conversation and insight from across the industry in Asia.

What does the culture of a city have to do with how a football team trains? At FC Annecy, it has helped shape their whole approach to physical preparation. Surrounded by mountains and trails, running is a huge part of life in Annecy. The performance staff at the club have taken inspiration from that, bringing some of the principles you would normally associate with endurance sports into how they prepare their players. Playing in Ligue 2 with one of the lowest squad market values in the league, FC Annecy look to physical preparation as a way to best compete - focusing on aerobic capacity, extremely high running volumes as well as the ability to repeatedly produce high speed and sprint efforts under fatigue. This means higher than normal weekly volumes, double sessions and deliberately getting players used to training under heavy fatigue. The club's Head of Performance Stan Krug writes about how they build that into a normal training week both in pre-season and in-season, as well as how they use our live data and heart rate zones to ensure it's all done in a structured way. A really interesting approach to physical preparation - full insight below👇 https://lnkd.in/dsdUnuQW

A look inside the performance set up at one of France’s biggest clubs. We spoke with Donough Holohan and the performance staff at AS SAINT ETIENNE ahead of the new season, about how physical data fits into their day to day work with the team. One of the big things for them is being able to get accurate data live, while they’re still out on the pitch. That means coaches can make decisions there and then around what individual players need - whether that’s within a regular training group or during rehab. Full insight below👇

August's Sports Science Newsletter is here ⤵️ As clubs return for pre-season and preparations ramp up for the new campaign, this month's edition is looks at the testing & profiling strategies shaping the start of the season. ⚽ Inside pre-season: Arsenal's Bronco Test and Liverpool's new aerobic protocol, Tottenham's full testing battery, Oxford United's 6 minute test, and Liverpool's acceleration profiling - we look at some of this summer's most interesting testing methods. 📊 Research: A look at how the new Ladies Gaelic Football rules have changed the physical demands of the game. 🎓 A free learning course for coaches this pre-season Read the full newsletter below. 👇

⚽ Preseason Transfer Window Update: As in real life football, it's also an extremely busy period when it comes to pre season and Sports Technology 📈 STATSports Welcomes a Host of New African Clients 🌍 STATSports continue expanding access to our GPS performance solutions across the African continent and particularly in football. What's meant the most to us is how many of these organizations have chosen to adopt STATSports this window. Once teams see what our system can really do, they see the value for themselves ✊️ Here's a first look: 🇹🇿 Young Africans SC (Tanzania): The Tanzanian giants and record 31-time Premier League champions made history in 2025/26, becoming the first club to win five straight titles and securing their spot in the CAF Champions League group stage. 🇨🇮 ASEC Mimosas (Ivory Coast): Ivorian football royalty. The Yellow and Black claimed a staggering 30th league title in 2025/26, extending their status as the most decorated club in the country's history. 🇿🇦 Durban City FC (South Africa): A phenomenal 2025/26 campaign saw the "Citizens" finish inside the Betway Premiership top eight AND lift the 2026 Nedbank Cup, the first KwaZulu-Natal club to do so in 17 years, sealing CAF Confederation Cup qualification. 🇷🇼 Rwanda FA / Fédération Rwandaise de Football: Home of the Amavubi ("Wasps"), who play out of the iconic Amahoro Stadium in Kigali. A proud footballing nation on the rise across CAF competition, with real ambition to match. 🇿🇦 Midlands Wanderers (South Africa): "Abafana Bebatha" earned back-to-back promotions, storming through the SAFA Second Division before stepping up into the National First Division for 2025/26. For more about STATSports GPS system, feel free to reach out: 📧 andrew.howitt@statsports.com 📱 +27657130000 or 📌DM me on Linkedin.

Two years ago, dramatic new rules changed mens Gaelic football. This season, we’re seeing something similar in ladies Gaelic football. As the first inter-county season under the new rules comes to a close, early physical data is already revealing how the demands of the game are evolving: 📈 Full-Forward (+62%) and Full-Back (+53%) positions have seen the biggest increase in accelerations 📈 Greater high-speed running and sprint demands for Half-Backs, Half-Forwards & Midfielders 📉 Reduced high-speed running for Full-Backs and Full-Forwards 📈 Increased acceleration and deceleration demands across every position except Midfield In early research, in-house Sports Scientist Eimear Smyth looks at competitive inter-county GPS data to quantify the impact of the new rules and what those changes mean for coaches and practitioners. Read the full study below. 👇 https://lnkd.in/eCmFrE85

For anyone involved in sport, the off-season & pre-season is likely the best time to look at themselves and see where they can improve. Earlier this year, we released our Introduction to Athlete Monitoring online course, covering the basics of sports science, athlete monitoring and how to put both into practice within a team environment. ✔️Free of charge ✔️Takes less than 90 mins ✔️No prior sports science background needed Whether you’re thinking about using GPS technology, need a quick refresher or are simply curious about why it's used so widely, this course led by elite sports scientist Andrew Wiseman is an ideal place to start. Complete for free here👇 https://lnkd.in/eYgSKjGX

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup reaches its conclusion, FC Cincinnati Director of Sport Science, Phil Keehne MSc, explains how elite performance teams prepared players for unprecedented demands — with live STATSports GPS technology helping monitor workload, inform decision-making and optimise performance throughout the tournament. #FootballBusiness #SportsScience #GPS #PerformanceAnalysis #SportsTechnology #WorldCup