German software company SAP and City Football Group announced a global, multi-year marketing and technology partnership that will transform the way the ownership group and its football teams operate and perform. SAP will become the official cloud software provider and a technology advisor of City Football Group and its four clubs around the world, including Man City, Major League Soccer club New York City FC, A-League side Melbourne City and J-League side Yokohama F. Marinos. City Football Group and its clubs will implement a variety of cloud-based solutions powered by the SAP HANA platform with the aim to simplify their worldwide operations, scale their business, increase productivity and enhance the fan experience. Another element of the partnership will be the collaboration to co-innovate and develop new applications to analyze and improve performance on the field for players and coaches (SAP). FORBES' Adrian Bridgwater wrote new use of technology in the game is "changing the way things are done behind the scenes and on the pitches." Teams like Man City will "use technology in areas from administration (budgeting, planning, forecasting and ticketing) to a wide array of on-the-pitch application use cases." Big data in the football field is also "used to help in areas such as injury prevention, speed of rehabilitation tracking, training goals and everything from food intolerance to sleep patterns." It is all about "putting all the information into context so that the club can actually see the effect its training ultimately has on the players it works with." A variety of SAP solutions will be "leveraged to enhance the fan experience in CFG team stadiums around the world, including an interactive digital insights wall at the Etihad Stadium that will bring real-time analytics and insights to fans attending matches." SAP and CFG "hope to change the way that fans of CFG teams access and consume football data, allowing them to look at the game differently and understand it in the most relevant way." Next comes Live Player Tracking (something only allowed in Australia so far) to "provide live data to coaches." Individual and team-applied sports psychology is also being "more openly applied based on data analytics and this is often called 'Human Science'" (FORBES, 7/7).
