Reading host PSG and Ajax for football AI summit as Royals embrace innovation
Reading will host some of European football’s biggest clubs this week as Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax, Crystal Palace and Como visit the League One side for a summit focused on artificial intelligence.
Reading’s AI progress
The event at Reading’s Bearwood Park training complex comes one year after owner Rob Couhig helped establish the club’s pioneering AI department. Stuart Fenton, Reading’s head of AI and the first person to hold that role in English football, said the visit demonstrated how far the club’s programme had developed.
“PSG won the Champions League last year, so it’s super exciting that we get teams like that coming to Reading,” Fenton told BBC Radio Berkshire. “It also puts Reading in the conversation with those kinds of people.”
Reading’s work is focused primarily on recruitment, using technology to process large volumes of player data and provide staff with more detailed information from across the world. The club has also applied AI to tactics, retail and the maintenance of the playing surface at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
Technology designed to support staff
Fenton said the club’s approach was not about replacing employees, but about helping them make better decisions and work more efficiently.
“It’s [about] creating the culture across the club where people are thinking differently - not how we can use it to replace humans, but how we can empower them and actually get them to do their job in a more effective way,” he said.
The club’s ground staff are already using AI models to assess grass protection and identify the most effective formulas for maintaining the pitch. Fenton said those practical applications were helping to build an innovation culture throughout the organisation.
“Everyone thinks AI is like a light switch - you flick it and suddenly you’re the world’s most intelligent team,” Fenton said. “If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.”
European clubs share expertise
PSG and Ajax are among the clubs taking part in Friday’s conference, while Premier League side Crystal Palace and Champions League club Como are also expected to attend. The summit will give the visitors an opportunity to hear about Reading’s work and share their own experience of using technology in football.
The event will also launch a new sports technology and artificial intelligence programme between Reading and Setanta College. Fenton said the club was approaching the occasion with confidence rather than intimidation.
“We’re not starstruck by these teams,” he said. “The exciting thing is they’re coming to us - we’re not going to them.”