I’d support player strike, AI in football is already here

In his final fortnightly exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Jon Smith, one of football’s first-ever agents and a man who was an integral figure in the forming of the Premier League, discusses how close we are to a player strike, why supporters must be looked after, why AI is part of the future of the game, what we should expect from a football regulator – and more!

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We’re at a tipping point and I’d support an imminent player strike

Rodri of Manchester City (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

As far as player welfare is concerned, I think there is a growing sentiment that strike action has been coming for a while.

Football on a global level, certainly the top of the game, has found itself in an extraordinary position post pandemic where it has become, and we’ve said this before, the repository of many of the world’s populations emotions in a bad time.

It’s where people go to be to let their emotions flow and attached to that of course are huge broadcast numbers, football influencer TV audiences that are topping out at over a quarter of a million hits a month and a global audience for the Premier League of over 2 billion every weekend – and then there’s this lovely little entity called money.

I think the people that run the game have been able to see an opportunity to capture this huge spending ability from global football fans, and so they put in more competitions, bigger broadcast rights, bigger sponsorship values and inherent in all of that is pushing players to play more games.

There comes a point when the human body can only take so much, even as wonderfully fit as these players are.

They’re monitored by medical attachments when they leave the training ground, people back at the clubs know what they’re eating and doing, and all the information seems to point to the fact that injuries are becoming more commonplace.

If a club has a player that’s earning in excess of £100,000 per week, they’ll want to get him back on the field as soon as possible, maybe a week too early, but playing those extra games is just not commensurate with the welfare of the players.

I think there comes a tipping point and it’s very close, and I think Rodri and his…

Source link : https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/09/25/agents-column-player-strike-premier-league/

Author : Jon Smith

Publish date : 2024-09-25 10:20:03

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