Reading hope AI can take them to the Premier League

"One of the first comments I got when I came in was - can he play up front?"

The use of Artificial Intelligence is growing in sport, and while some football fans may question its use, Reading firmly believe it is the future.

Stuart Fenton is the first head of AI to be appointed by an English club and is hoping technology can help them climb all the way to the Premier League.

Owner Rob Couhig introduced this new position late last year and hopes that Fenton's contribution can make an impact both on and off the pitch, on recruitment, tactics and other club business.

"What we're trying to show is we are pioneers here at this level," Fenton told BBC South Today. "Hopefully it will translate in the medium and long term to results and positive actions on the pitch.

"What we're bringing in can help us identify new players, help tactical analysis and help all the way to the business operation side, In the next six to 12 months we'll hope to start really seeing the benefits of what we're trying to do here.

"For the team right now AI will complement them so it's very much down to the management and the coaching team here to be able to get the results but anything we can do from an AI data perspective hopefully will help us.

"Our longer term goal is the Premier League, we've seen the success of Brentford and Brighton who have been able to do this using data and it's just how do we do it at Reading and put our own stamp on it."

The Royals believe this is a big opportunity for the club, located in the UK's 'Silicon Valley', an area with a high number of tech firms such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco.

Fenton says the club have already had a number of big companies get in touch with them, wanting to be part of their AI journey.

Before Reading can start to think of the Premier League, they need to first get themselves out of League One and they currently sit just two points outside the top six.

They have not been in the top tier since 2012 and have been in League One for the past three campaigns after being relegated in 2023.

If they are to achieve promotion and stay in the Championship, then good player recruitment will be a key factor in their ability to do so.

Fenton claims the technology Reading now have available can break the traditional model around player signings as well as scouting.

"We brought in an AI platform that basically gives us access to data from players and leagues all around the world," Fenton added.

"We now have a platform that will allow us to evaluate and look at players from all around the world, we've been using that to identify players and plan for our transfer windows so we get access to information about players that historically we would have never even known about.

"We still have that human approach here at Reading so we still have the scouting element but it's just giving them more people to look at and hopefully finding these gems that are out there.

"Hopefully that will translate into better players coming in and then propelling us through the divisions."

Manager Leam Richardson and his backroom team have been in place at Reading since October and are yet to use this technology directly with the players.

Fenton said, however, that involvement with the first team is likely to increase as time goes by, and could revolutionise the way the coaching staff operate.

"We haven't hit the players yet with the AI side, It's been very much allowing the coaches to install their philosophy and what they want to do," he added.

"But the evolution and where we want to take this is to be completely numbers and, data-driven, we'll see if we can analyse the game differently, from player analysis down to our scouting, could AI find a way that we could beat a team differently?

"We've seen teams across the world who are doing it around set pieces, how they can use AI for corners, throw-ins, free kicks and be more effective and it's just how do we bring that into the football team here and start utilising it on a regular basis."

Professor Nick Jennings, Vice-Chancellor and President at Loughborough University, feels AI can be a positive force in sport but only if it is used correctly.

He highlighted North American sports such as NFL and basketball which utilise AI in a data-driven approach to games.

And with AI already in use across the Premier League, EFL teams are learning about the help it can give them across their footballing departments.

"AI and sport is a really exciting and burgeoning area at the moment," Jennings said. "I always think of AI as something that complements human expertise and human insight.

"I'm always very interested in human AI partnerships in general and I think it works particularly well in sport where you're combining human intuition with AI intuition.

"I think they're two different things and have different strengths and when you put the two together and you get it to work well, I think that is the best combination."

With the fast introduction and growth of technology across football, Jennings believes it is pointing the way forward across various sports.

"I absolutely think that AI will continue to flourish and will expand," he added.

"It's a powerful computing technology and sport is often, particularly at the elite level, round small marginal gains and just doing this bit better.

"AI can give you that competitive advantage if you use it well and if you use it wisely so I think we will use it and we will see more of it."