Welcome to issue #013 of Contemporary Football, your inside look at how the game really works behind the scenes.
Monday to Friday, you’ll uncover a new perspective on football business, and sometimes a deeper story that sharpens your thinking and gives you an edge in the beautiful game.
If you need support on your football journey, just write me.
Hey everyone,
Last night I was thinking about something simple:
if you run a club or a football agency today and you're not using AI, you’re already behind.
I say it because the gap is opening right now.
AI is reshaping the way football works:
scouting, analysis, admin, contracts, operations…
Everything is becoming faster and cheaper.
But the real advantage is not “AI.”
The real advantage is how you think about AI.
Go narrow, go deep
You don’t need an “AI department.”
You just need one job done perfectly.
If you’re a club:
“Find undervalued players in second divisions.”
If you’re an agency:
“Track every expiring contract in Europe, updated daily.”
One need.
One workflow.
One competitive edge.
Own that, and you’re already ahead of 80% of the industry.
Think in agents, not chatbots
We’re entering the Agent Era.
This is AI that works for you, not AI you talk to.
Imagine an agent that:
pulls the match data
checks player metrics
builds the scouting dossier
writes the final report
updates your CRM
and sends it to your sporting director
…all while you’re drinking your morning coffee.
This is where the next decade is heading.
Not “AI as a tool,” but “AI as a worker.
Speed beats perfection
Football is full of gaps.
Scouting gaps.
Market gaps.
Workflow gaps.
The club that fills those gaps first wins.
Not the club that waits for the perfect tool.
Not the club that spends the most money.
The club that moves.
If you’re not experimenting with AI right now, you’re leaving the next decade untouched.
What Arsenal’s Arteta gets right about AI
This week Arteta talked openly about using AI at Arsenal.
What he said wasn’t revolutionary, but it was honest:
“It’s a powerful tool if you ask the right questions.”
“It will improve and give us things to think about.”
“You still need sensitivity and intuition… we are dealing with human beings.”
“If you don’t understand how the data is produced, you can get very confused.”
Basically:
AI is only as smart as the questions you ask.
And most clubs still struggle more with the questions than with the technology.
The real lesson
Football is not becoming AI-driven.
Football is becoming question-driven.
The clubs that will win in this new era are the ones that can:
define the real problem
understand their data
interpret insights with judgment
build workflows that connect data → decisions
AI won’t replace decision makers.
AI will expose the ones who never had a decision process in the first place.
AI is not here to replace football people.
It’s here to help them.
Less admin.
Less noise.
More time for real decisions.
Good thinking will matter more than big budgets.
And the smartest clubs will be the ones with the clearest minds.
What’s the first workflow you would automate in your club or agency?
That’s all for today!
See you tomorrow,
Federico