The Irish football governing council, Irish Football Association has announced a partnership extension with the world’s leading player tracking and analysis provider, STATSports.
The business, which is situated in Northern Ireland, will also keep up its role as the official player performance analysis partner for the national teams, the Irish FA JD Academy, and the body’s coach education department.
In accordance with the terms of the collaboration with the Irish FA, STATSports will give Coach Education and the Academy additional assistance by educating coaches and teams throughout Northern Ireland about sports science.
It will also collaborate with the organisation to aid in Talent Identification by tracking the metrics of young players throughout the nation using the STATSports Apex Athlete Series GPS Tracker product.
Furthermore, all APEX Athlete Series users in Northern Ireland will be provided with the opportunity to share their data with the Irish FA, and the best athletes will be encouraged to participate in a series of Talent ID events during the course of the partnership.
The Irish FA officially welcomed STATSports as an official partner in 2020. The company is based in Newry and has offices in Chicago, Florida, and London.
David Tweed, Head of Marketing at STATSports, said, “We’re really pleased to be extending our relationship with the Irish FA. We’re excited about how we can further support player development in Northern Ireland, particularly with helping the pathway into the JD Academy. We’ve seen notable successes around the use of player performance data supporting Premier League teams and various youth competitions in the US to help identify talent, so we’re delighted to be strengthening this approach in support of the Irish FA.”
The senior men’s national team has been using the company’s technology since 2012. It records players’ session-by-session data, such as total distance travelled, top speeds, distance travelled at high speed, exertion, and exhaustion levels.
Stephen Garrett, Senior Commercial Manager at the Irish FA, said, “We’re delighted to renew our partnership with STATSports, a truly world leading company indigenous to Northern Ireland. We’re excited to work together to help educate clubs, volunteers and players on GPS performance analysis across all areas of Northern Ireland football.”