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From Lab to Pitch

Research and innovation in football from Germany

Germany is the host country of the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship. Football is not only the world’s most popular sport, it is also full of research. Knowledge-based innovation and novel technologies are key to success in football.

Germany has a lot to offer in this regard. For our special issue, we have visited international researchers and innovators from German universities, research institutions and companies. AI-based tactical football analysis, injury prevention and rehabilitation and much more: Learn more about exciting examples of football-related research and innovation “made in Germany”.

And the ball is rolling… Discover From Lab to Pitch!

Videos

Kick-off by Federal Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger

Welcome to From Lab to Pitch! A kick-off by Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger

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Giordano improves rehabilitation after knee injuries

Injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are among the most common severe injuries in football. Giordano’s research contributes to better prevention and rehabilitation.

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Monica investigates infectious diseases in football

Infections are a main cause of time loss of professional football players. Monica wants to understand the modifications in immune functions after training and matches.

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Tim heads the international PhD programme “Science and Health in Football”

Professor Tim Meyer has established the international PhD programme “Science and Health in Football” at Saarland University. He is the Chief Medical Officer of the UEFA EURO 2024 and has worked as team physician for the German Football Association for over 20 years.

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Jonathan develops sports gear made ot algae

Jonathan works with adidas. He develops prototypes to convert the textile value chain from petroleum-based to bio-based.

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Jochen uses radio-based communications to analyse football

Together with partners, Jochen has developed a mobile electronic device for football players and the ball. It helps particularly small clubs to analyse their trainings and matches.

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Expert interviews

We want to push the boundaries of AI-based tactical football analysis

Manuel Stein is CEO and founder of Subsequent. The company is a provider of real-time skeleton data extraction and tracking and innovative motion analysis based on simple video recordings. In 2023, Subsequent has been awarded as Germany’s “Digital Start-up of the Year” by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. In this interview, he talks about his journey towards a more context-oriented data analysis and visualisation in football.

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Manuel holds a ball in his hand and looks into the camera. On the right-hand side is a quote "We want to push the boundaries of AI-based tactical football analysis"

We are breaking new ground in assessing sustainability in sports

Pamela Wicker is a Professor for Sport Management and Sport Sociology at Bielefeld University and holds the Chair for Sport and Society. In this interview, she talks about how the UEFA EURO 2024 relates to sustainability, how to raise awareness on the presence of women researchers in the media, and how the social value of football can be measured.

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Pamel holds a ball in her hand and looks into the camera. On the right-hand side is a quote "We are breaking new ground in assessing sustainability in sports"

TSG Hoffenheim excels in understanding how psychological aspects impact performance

Adam Beavan is Coordinator of Science & Innovation at the German top-league club TSG Hoffenheim. He is researching how cognitive training techniques can help improve physical performance. In this interview, Adam talks about how to train the brain, Hoffenheim’s role in football research, and why you should consider doing research in Germany.

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Adam Beaven holds a ball in his hand and looks into the camera. On the right-hand side is a quote "TSG Hoffenheim excels in understanding how psychological aspects impact performance"

Our vision is to develop an early warning system for team crises in professional football

Darko Jekauc is a full professor at the Institute of Sports and Sports Science at KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and heads the group for health education and sports psychology. He is currently leading a research project to develop a model to better describe the determinants of team crises in professional football. In this interview, he talks about his approach and key challenges.

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Darko holds a ball in his hand and looks into the camera. On the right-hand side is a quote "We want to push the boundaries of AI-based tactical football analysis"

Selection of football research sites in Germany

Flip through and learn more about football-related research and innovation from Germany.

German Sport University Cologne

The German Sport University Cologne is Germany’s only and Europe’s largest university in the field of sport science. With 19 scientific institutes and five transfer facilities, research is multi-faceted, but always focused on the topic of “sport and movement”.

German Sport University Cologne

Institute of Sports and Sports Science (IfSS) at KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

The junior research group Performance Diagnostics and Soccer Research deals with the description and measurement of physiological, technical, and tactical performance in individual and team sports. A particular focus is on the complex structure of performance in soccer. In addition to laboratory and field studies, tracking-based match analyses from professional soccer are used to achieve these goals.

Institute of Sports and Sports Science (IfSS)

Department of Sports Science at Bielefeld University

In the Department of Sports Science at Bielefeld University, several research groups are conducting research on various topics related to football. These include the evaluation of the ecological, economic and social sustainability of the European Football Championship 2024, sustainability issues in the German Bundesliga, and the social value of amateur football and voluntary work in football clubs. In the area of sport and economics, these include the detection of betting fraud, the analysis and forecasting of spectator numbers, match evaluation by referees, players’ careers in football, and the predictive quality of football betting.

Department of Sports Science at Bielefeld University

Established in 2019, the TSG ResearchLab is a non-profit limited liability company dedicated to conducting cutting-edge scientific research on emerging topics in sports and society. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of TSG Hoffenheim Spielbetriebs GmbH, the ResearchLab operates independently to carry out high-quality research projects across various disciplines. In addition, the ResearchLab actively promotes education and knowledge transfer in these areas, allowing insights gained from studying elite athletes to benefit society as a whole. For instance, we have developed a training video game designed to enhance athletes’ cognitive processes and boost players’ reaction times on the pitch.

TSG ResearchLab

Institute for Sports Science at Friedrich Schiller University Jena

The Institute for Sports Science has a strong research focus on ‘health’, with particular emphasis on Sports and Health Economics, Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, as well as the analysis and influence of sensorimotor function and biomechanics in relation to athletic performance and injury risk. Collaborative projects are conducted with both women’s and men’s soccer teams in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga, as well as regional leagues.

Institute for Sports Science at Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Tübingen Institute of Sports Science

The Tübingen Institute of Sports Science is a prestigious sports science institute in Germany. Here, scientists conduct research on topics related to performance, health and education. A key focus of research is on football, including projects in sport psychology and data science examining talent identification and development, elite youth coaching, design of sports competitions, perceptual-cognitive skills in VR environments, and tactical performance analyses.

Tübingen Institute of Sports Science