Highlights: PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS – Player Recruitment SPOTLIGHT – Latin America BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – UK PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – Analysis Platform
Newsletter – Autumn 2011
DELIVERING PERFORMANCE INSIGHTS
PAGE TWO
FOREWORD Over the past 12 months we have seen exciting client wins, new product development, and ongoing HR investment in line with our growing customer base and service offering. Specifically, we have welcomed a number of new employees including Matthew Jones and Neil Hutchinson to our product and operations team. We have also demonstrated the ongoing training and development invested by Prozone to ensure the transformation of undergraduate sports scientists and performance analysts into the real world of industry through placements and full time positions such as Lewis Rhodes’ recent appointment at Stoke City FC. Our expertise in performance analysis runs deep throughout the business and this foundation remains a key driver for our service orientation. Our clients remain at the heart of what we do and shape our innovation for the future of the industry. It’s for this reason that Prozone continues to be the chosen provider and partner to an expanding global family of customers. In an industry where results and high performance are extremely important, we care passionately about making our clients successful through delivering effective performance insights and world-class service, based on expertise and intelligence. For another year running we have renewed and extended services with a record number of teams in the UK, including Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Fulham, Stoke City and Wigan Athletic. In addition to strengthening our UK position we are extremely proud to announce the addition of the Argentina National Team and AFA which further demonstrates our expansion in the U.S. and Latin America. After the frantic European summer transfer deadline day [see Player Recruitment Analysis on page 3] we are looking forward to another exciting season, and as always, we wish all our teams across the world the best in the run up to the New Year.
Barry McNeill Managing Director
CONTENTS P2 P3
FOREWORD
P4-5
SPOTLIGHT – LATIN AMERICA Argentine FA partners with Prozone Prozone in Chile 2011 Copa América
P6-7
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT - UK Barclays Premier League npower Championship
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS Player Recruitment
P8
PARTNERSHIPS Provelop
P9
INDUSTRY EVENTS Leaders in Performance Soccerex Global Convention Scouting Forum
P10-12 PRODUCT RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Analysis Platform RECRUITER
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PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS Premier League Summer Transfer Trends Constrained by one of the most severe economic downturns for decades and restricted to four months of the year in which to conduct their transfer business, rarely has it been so important for football clubs to have a clearly defined recruitment strategy. To focus on the much talked about English Premier League; the summer 2011 transfer window saw English clubs spend £485m despite the inclement financial conditions, a remarkable 33% increase on the outlay during the same period last year. While these figures demonstrate that the forthcoming implementation of UEFA’s ‘Financial Fair Play’ initiative is unlikely to reduce the total amount spent by teams, they do highlight the polarised nature of the Premier League’s economic map; Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United accounting for 66% of the division’s expenditure between them. The second most expensive transfer window in Premier League history, this summer saw clubs do more of their business domestically, the figure for transfer fees paid to overseas clubs being down by a quarter on 2010. Indeed, of the £485m spent, £165m was used to buy English players, perhaps an indication of the home-grown player rule taking affect. There have also been marked differences in the nature of the deals which were conducted this year as opposed to 2010, as Blake Wooster, Head of Business Development at Prozone, points out; “In a trend which reflects the budgetary constraints many clubs are faced with, this summer saw free transfers constitute 28.2% of all deals made, the most common they have ever been. Alongside this development, we have also seen a significant reduction in the number of loans, their 10.9% share of total deals reflecting the greater need teams have to raise funds through sales.” 100
TYPE OF TRANSFER KEY: Loan Free
80
Transfer
70 60 50 40 30 20 10
The data collected in 2010 also gives an indication as to the best time to conduct business during the window. The teams which finished the season in the bottom half of the table bought, on average, 36% of their acquisitions on the final day of the window, waiting until the very last moment to secure over a third of their targets. Conversely, the teams which finished fifth to eighth made just 14.2% of their signings on deadline day, a statistic which seems to support the widely-held view that teams perform better if new players are given time to settle. The data history suggests that those teams dealing late won’t perform as well as those who bought earlier (in relative terms). Prozone will continue to analyse performance to provide further insights into the impact of this summer’s player moves on team dynamics; and perhaps whether, the chasing pack to the Champions League contingent, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur – clubs which brought players in earlier in the summer – can close the gap on last season’s leading quartet. Also interesting when looking at early performances of last season’s top 4; Arsenal – a team which made several late signings - have until now been under pressure by a series of poor results whereas Manchester United, who did most of their business in the off-season, have started the new campaign in fine form and appear, for the moment, to be proving right the idea that teams play to a higher standard when given time to gel.
Sum - 11
Jan - 11
Sum - 10
Jan - 10
Sum - 09
Jan - 09
Sum - 08
Jan - 08
Sum - 07
Jan - 07
0 Sum - 06
Percentage of Total Transfers In
90
Using Prozone’s player performance ratings we are able to empirically demonstrate that players who came to the Premier League from overseas in the summer of 2010 had better average ratings over the course of the season than those who moved between clubs within the division (57.17 to 51.08). With domestic players often being sold at vastly inflated prices, it could be said that managers should possibly look abroad if they want true value for money, that being despite the conventional wisdom holding that English-based players will adapt to new clubs far more easily.
With the help of Prozone’s expertise in the field of recruitment, clubs are able to subject the market to increasingly detailed analysis and gain advantages over their rivals when it comes to the finer details of transfer business. Further analysis available in the Prozone Player Recruitment whitepaper to be presented at Leaders in Performance Conference 2011, and available online at: www.prozonesports.com/summertransfers2011
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SPOTLIGHT – LATIN AMERICA
ARGENTINE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PARTNERS WITH PROZONE
Following on from our partnership with Prozone representatives PlayFE and the opening of an office in Buenos Aires, the last 12 months have seen Prozone expand our operations and reputation in Latin America through a series of agreements with clubs, broadcasters and national associations. The Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) have become the first national association in Latin America to work with Prozone supporting the growth of football at the national team level and recently agreeing a league-wide deal providing all Primera División clubs access to indepth technical and tactical analysis from Prozone. The deal with the AFA will see clubs such as Boca Juniors, Colón and Independiente receive a combination of PROZONE3 and MATCHVIEWER analysis of all Argentine Primera División matches. This analysis will also be used during weekly AFA television shows and form the basis for articles in the AFA’s monthly magazine.
Following an in-depth training programme held at the AFA Headquarters to provide full technical and physical analysis training to managers, coaches, and technical staff, and to facilitate the implementation of the technology across the league; Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro President, Carlos Abdo, commented on the benefits to all levels of the clubs; “The incorporation of Prozone’s technology will mean a big leap in quality regarding the performance analysis of Argentine football. This system as used in Europe will add a further level of professionalism to decisions, not only from the point of view of the technical and coaching staff but also to those of the management at the highestlevel.” Fernando Martinez, Director of PlayFE, had this to say about AFA’s relationship with Prozone: “South American football has always played an important part in the development of the global game – not least through the success of Argentina’s World Cup teams and the development of some of the best players in the world. Similarly, Prozone Sports have acted as pioneers in the next generation use of analysis tools to support future growth in athlete and team development. This partnership is a fantastic opportunity for AFA to continue to develop its teams and support new cutting-edge projects within different business areas.”
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PROZONE IN CHILE Our newly established partnerships in Chile have a similar wide-ranging mandate as those in Argentina. We now offer full match analysis to both the national team and a number of the country’s leading clubs, as well as having provided real-time analysis to Canal de Fútbol - Chile’s leading football broadcaster. After making it through to the knockout stages of the 2010 World Cup, with good wins against Honduras and Switzerland and a narrow 2-1 defeat to eventual champions Spain, Chile prepared for the 2011 Copa América by signing an agreement for Prozone to provide a full performance analysis service for the Men’s National Team under the guidance of Claudio Borghi.
When asked about his vision for performance analysis within Chile, Borghi replied; “Prozone will add great value to Chilean football at the national, professional league and international levels. I trust that Prozone analysis will allow my coaching staff to monitor performance in a precise and objective way and prepare for upcoming matches better than we ever have before.” The last 12 months have seen Prozone forge fruitful partnerships with two of Chile’s leading club sides – Colo-Colo and Unión Española. Between them the two clubs have won the Chilean Primera División 35 times and it is this requisite for continued success that has lead both teams to work with Prozone. According to Johnny Ashwell, Unión Española’s General Manager; “Recent increases in the degree of competitiveness and the use of technology in the football industry mean that clubs who are serious about competing at a high standard need to be dedicated to performance analysis. Choosing to work with Prozone will not only give us the tools to provide detailed technical, tactical and physical analysis to our coaching staff, but also provide value to our management team. Unión Española takes great pride in being one of the first clubs in South America to be using the Prozone system.” Alberto Gutiérrez, who has been charged with advancing the analysis of all Colo-Colo players and teams as well as identifying and monitoring player acquisition targets, had this to say about working with Prozone; “Prozone are the global leaders in performance analysis. They provide products and services for every sector of the club. We at Colo-Colo needed a flexible system that would allow us to gain performance insights from multiple levels, from youth teams to the first team, as well as throughout Chile and the region. Prozone was the obvious choice to create a bespoke solution to meet our needs.”
ANALYSIS OF THE COPA AMÉRICA FOR CANAL DE FÚTBOL
An increasing number of broadcasters worldwide are looking at performance data to increase the validity and objectivity of their live and postmatch analysis. Chile’s leading football broadcaster – Canal de Fútbol – were amongst the first to support their broadcast and online coverage with Prozone in-game and post match analysis, providing enhanced game coverage and consumer experience of the 2011 Copa América. Prozone analysis of each of the 26 games in the tournament that showcases some of the best players in South America, provided real-time technical and tactical performance analysis as it happened; including player and team data, minute by minute events and live tournament match score updates, as well as extensive post-match data, video and analysis via MATCHVIEWER from the 12 competing teams in Argentina. Reflecting on a year that has seen huge developments in performance analysis in Latin American football, Andrew Opatkiewicz, Prozone Business Development Manager for the Americas, has this to say: “With the recent signings of AFA, ANFP, Unión Española and Colo-Colo, we are seeing clear signs that the region is hungry for performance analysis tools. Prozone’s full range of products and services allow any organization - whether that’s a federation, a club or a broadcaster - unrivalled performance insights.”
PAGE SIX
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UK
While developing partnerships with overseas clubs and associations is an important part of our business development plan, we continue to pride ourselves on the service we offer to clubs at all levels of the English game. In fact, the 2011/12 season will see us again working with a record number of clubs including 15 in the Premier League as well as 21 from the Championship and an ever-growing list of teams from Leagues One and Two. This season will see us offer tactical and technical analysis across all four domestic leagues, as well as supporting our English teams in European competitions.
“With the strength and flexibility of the services that Prozone offer, we continue to provide a range of comprehensive performance analysis services across all levels of the domestic game and strengthen our position as the performance analysis service of choice for English football.� Barry McNeill, Managing Director - Prozone
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PROZONE AND THE PREMIER LEAGUE Our role as the performance analysis service of choice for English football has been further cemented for this season with 15 Premier League teams choosing Prozone. These teams include 2010/11 Champions and Champions League finalists Manchester United, FA Cup Winners Manchester City, seven teams who are playing in Europe as well as two of the teams newly promoted from the Championship. Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Stoke, Fulham and Wigan have all signed contract renewals that will see them continue to receive full Prozone performance analysis services for the season ahead. Prozone share our clubs’ ambitions to be at the forefront of technology turning data into unique valuable insights generating and maintaining the highest levels of performance across all levels of the club.
Arsenal Manager, Arsène Wenger, an advocate of the integration of sports science into the coaching process and one of Prozone’s longest standing clients, had this to say about his club’s relationship with Prozone; “The extension of our long standing relationship with Prozone will allow us to continue the great work that is being done around performance analytics at the club. Prozone’s support and insights play a key role in our coaching process, as well as aiding in the education of our young players from the academy right through to the first team. This consistency gives us a great platform from which to develop and expand the ways in which analysis is delivered to our football department as a whole.” Manchester United Fitness Coach, Tony Strudwick also commented; “Information is the fuel that drives the coaching process. Planning, decision making, monitoring and performance analysis all depend on the availability of the necessary data. Prozone provide us with an appropriate platform to present, assimilate and deliver performance data.” There continues to be a growing importance for enhanced performance analysis even for the most successful teams in professional sport. Working with some of the leading coaches in football is part of Prozone’s DNA as we continue to develop new products and enhanced services to further advance the use of performance analysis in football.
PROZONE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP Last year Prozone provided performance analysis to both the clubs automatically promoted from the Championship. Both of these clubs, QPR and Norwich, have gone on to extend their service agreements in order to help them prepare for the season ahead in the Premier League. The 2011/2012 season will see us working alongside 21 of the 24 clubs in the Championship, including League One promoted team Southampton who have upgraded their Prozone service to become one of 11 Championship teams using the full PROZONE3 performance analysis service. The summer has also seen Barnsley and Peterborough become our newest Championship teams, while Brighton, Crystal Palace, Doncaster, Ipswich, Millwall and Reading have all renewed their existing agreements.
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PARTNERSHIPS PROVELOP
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT Prozone and Provelop, leaders in the field of neuroscience conditioning and the psychology of performance profiling, are partnering to develop the worlds first 360 degree player specific development program in compliance with the English Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan. Utilising Prozone and Provelop’s academically validated systems; the collective assessment will bring analysis of both hard and soft skills together providing the most comprehensive view of a player’s performance profile. As part of the Premier League’s commitment to defining best practice that sets the standard for the future delivery of youth development across professional football in England, this unique partnership is at the forefront of combining sports science with the key psychological performance indicators necessary for learning & development, and ultimately provides both players and coaches with the tools and strategies necessary to maximise performance.
Darren Royle, Prozone’s Head of UK Sales and Marketing commented on the partnership; “Identifying that it wasn’t just the technical, tactical, and physical skills that a player needed to progress; there’s also a significant mental component to be incorporated and Provelop’s psychological profiling expertise are the perfect synergy to our own high level performance data.”
Founder of Provelop, Tony Faulkner, added; “The Provelop Profile plays an essential role in the psychological development of any athlete. Combining this with Prozone performance data really does provide the tools and edge that teams and players need to maximise performance potential.” For more information on Provelop please visit www.provelop.org
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INDUSTRY EVENTS October 2011 – Leaders in Performance Prozone are proud to be the official Performance Partner of the 2011 Leaders in Performance event for a second year. Incorporating a high level conference, Leaders in Performance provides the opportunity to learn from performance leaders on subjects such as talent identification, athlete development, sports science, technology, analysis, psychology and physiology, which all play increasingly important roles in the performance of elite level athletes. 2011 will see senior performance figures from around the world come together to speak about a range of topics and issues including applying advanced statistical models to performance data with specific examples and insights from Prozone to be presented as a whitepaper at the Prozone sponsored seminar ‘How numbers and culture shape success: does it add up?’ with pioneer of statistical based recruitment, keynote speaker Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s. www.leadersinperformance.com
November 2011 – Soccerex Global Convention
In 2011, 26-30 November, the Soccerex Global Convention returns to the ‘Marvellous City’ of Rio de Janeiro for its second year in the spiritual home of football. The conference will see experts from football and business tackle the global issues and focused topics currently affecting the industry in a series of panels, one-to-one interviews, keynote addresses, presentations and workshops. In addition to exhibiting our leading products and services, Prozone will be combining local knowledge and international expertise to provide unrivalled services to the Latin American and Global markets in Brazil. Please visit our stand # 350 (next to the Networking Cafe) to meet the team during the event. www.soccerex.com
November 2011 – Scouting Forum Scouting Forum is the first global event dedicated to player scouting and the transfer market place. Following the success of the inaugural event in April representatives from Prozone’s European team will again be in attendance over the 2 day conference in Milan as clubs and agents from around the world meet together for one to one meetings and a programme of featured presentations. Prozone understand the recruitment marketplace having provided bespoke analysis and consultancy services to some of the biggest clubs in professional football including Real Madrid, Chelsea and Everton. With the use of accurate performance data, access to the most comprehensive database of players available, and by applying advanced statistical models to performance data, Prozone can help teams identify, profile, benchmark and evaluate potential transfer targets as well as manage their player asset management strategy and reduce financial risk by assessing a range of market trading components - including player productivity, transfer valuations and even forecast likely future performance trends. www.scoutingforum2011.com
To arrange a personal meeting with Prozone at any of these events, email enquiries@prozonesports.com.
PAGE TEN
PRODUCT, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
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NEXT GENERATION ANALYSIS PLATFORM Our position as the world’s leading performance analysis provider is due in no small part to the ongoing development and refinement of our performance analysis products and technology. This is achieved through direct consultation with our community and the huge number of coaches, analysts, sports scientists, clubs, federations and media customers that we work with worldwide. This unique opportunity enables us to capture and understand real customer needs and requirements, which in turn help us to identify areas of our offering that can be developed to serve our clients more effectively. According to Prozone’s Product Manager, Dan Mason; “It is important to innovate and embrace new and emerging technologies, and equally important to deliver products and services that are effective and relevant for our users. We ensure this by listening to the needs of coaches, managers and analysts on a daily basis.”
DRIVEN BY THE NEEDS OF THE MARKET Through this ongoing client consultation we’ve identified a need for more flexible delivery of match analysis data in order to integrate other performance datasets within a professional sports environment. Our consultation has identified a number of requirements with regards to the wider and more holistic information management and interpretation - examples include:
These requirements demonstrate an emerging trend towards a more 360 degree evaluation of player and team performance. With this in mind, Prozone are currently evaluating the range of requirements within the context of a new age player centric asset, data interpretation and management system, which enables clients to house, link, manage, interpret and communicate performance data from a single secure online delivery platform. This in turn will make it simpler, faster and more cost effective to update our services through the provision and integration of emerging technology. LEVEL 5 Consultancy
LEVEL 4 Data interpretation, statistical analysis and predictive analytics LEVEL 3 Administration and internal cross departmental communications platform LEVEL 2 Asset management through analysis, alerts and data synthesis via dashboard visualisations LEVEL 1 Data import, storage, linking and management
DATA COLLECTION
+ Internal communication of data and instructions + Optimisation and management of internal workflows + Quantification of player performance lifecycles + Objective and benchmarked player valuations + Psychological profiling and benchmarking of players
Technical/Tactical Psychological
Physiological Medical Contractual/Financial
WORKING WITH LEADING NAMES ACROSS THE INDUSTRY
+ Enhanced video management
Over the coming months we will be working closely with leading practitioners and service providers from all areas of the industry to advance our new performance analysis and delivery technology. Upon completion the new concept will likely be pioneered, and further developed, by working closely with our global network of teams, particularly in the English Premier League which regularly pioneers the introduction of innovative new technologies.
+ Predictive injury and performance modelling
According to Paul Neilson, Prozone’s Head of Business Operations;
+ Succession planning and recruitment + Quantification of training and match day loads
“Customer consultation and effective market research are crucial at this stage in order to ensure that we fully consider the evolving sports science and technology landscape, and develop a new product and technology platform which meets the current and future needs of our customers. It will allow us to deliver a superior level of service, making the data and products we provide more powerful, adaptable and flexible, and the maintenance and data hosting more cost effective helping us to expand into new sports and new markets worldwide.”
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PRODUCT UPDATE It is our continuing commitment at Prozone to develop our products and functionality to provide our customers with the most accurate performance analysis information available, through investing in product development and working closely with our clients to continually improve the service we offer.
RECRUITER: OPTIMISED
Clubs have been benefiting from extensive player data and video information, analytical tools and advanced comparison features, through Prozone’s online analytical player trading solution since its release over 12 months ago. With the latest RECRUITER development users, including Everton, Barcelona, Liverpool, Southampton, DC United & Sporting Kansas City, can now experience the quickest data searches and most intuitive Prozone experience to date. “RECRUITER has provided scouts and coaches with the ability to interrogate Prozone’s extensive game and player database; exploring individual player data, full match video and video highlights in order to make objective and better informed decisions on player trading through the use of accurate performance data.” Dan Mason, Product Manager - Prozone New features include: + Enhanced product interface + Improved functionality + Quicker searching + Personal player notepad creation + New data items + Pop-up player profiles + Performance information is now available for over 60,000 players from 47 of the biggest leagues and competitions in world football. For more information on Prozone RECRUITER visit: www.prozonesports.com or email: enquiries@prozonesports.com
Prozone Sports: Delivering Performance Insights
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