Area: Events

This section is where we describe the various innovation events in which we participate.

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Friendly international match for Sevilla FC U17

Last Tuesday, the Jesús Navas stadium hosted a friendly match between Saudi Arabia’s Future Falcons and Sevilla FC’s National League youth team. The game ended in a scoreless draw and served as a test for Joaquín Hidalgo’s team to measure their strength against this Saudi squad, which is based in Salou and is part of a high-performance program of the Saudi Football Federation.

Future Falcons is one of the talent development programs of the Saudi Football Federation. Its aim is to provide enriching experiences for young players aged 18, and to refine their skills through meticulous training conducted by an international coaching staff. Additionally, the players participate in friendly matches and international tournaments against prestigious European clubs in order to foster a generation of players who can represent Saudi national teams in international competitions.

Furthermore, the Saudi team took advantage of their visit to Seville to get to know the club better, by taking a comprehensive tour of the Ciudad Deportiva facilities and also visiting the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium tour to learn firsthand about the club’s history.

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Sports Day between Ottawa South United and Sevilla FC Women’s Team

On Monday, the female alevín team starred in a friendly match against Ottawa South United from Canada. Additionally, the Canadian team enjoyed a training session on Tuesday morning alongside the Sevilla FC academy coaches to further enrich their visit to Sevilla FC in the sports aspect.

Founded in 2003, Ottawa South United boasts one of the best high-performance football development programs in Canada, conducting its recruitment and development activities in Ottawa, Quebec, Kingston, and throughout eastern Ontario.

Furthermore, Ottawa South United took advantage of their visit to Sevilla to get to know the club better, conducting a comprehensive tour of the Sports City facilities and also visiting the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium tour to learn firsthand about the club’s history.

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“EcoFit Proteinlab” the winning business idea of the III Hackathon UPOemprende

The third edition of the competition, organized by the Vice-Rectorate of Institutional Relations and Foundations of Pablo de Olavide University, through the General Directorate of Employability and Entrepreneurship, and Andalucía Emprende, has involved 19 students, distributed across six multidisciplinary teams. Throughout the day, they worked to respond to the challenge posed by M2R Agrofarm, focusing on providing creative solutions based on the circular economy within the food sector.

‘EcoFit Proteinlab,’ a business idea based on producing meat from stem cells with high nutritional value, emerged as the winning concept. This initiative not only aims to offer a quality food product but also seeks to reduce production and distribution costs, decrease CO2 emissions associated with traditional livestock farming, and improve animal welfare.

The winning team had the privilege of being mentored by José Luis Fuentes from the CADE of Alcalá de Guadaira. The team comprised María Yórquez García, a bilingual student in Business Administration and Management; José Ramón Caballos Valle, a student of Biotechnology; and Miryam Amian Nuñez, a student of Finance and Accounting.

In addition to the mentors from Andalucía Emprende, who provided guidance and technical support throughout the day, participants also received assistance from expert ‘helpers.’ These ‘helpers’ came from collaborating entities such as Fusión Startups, the Innovation Center of Sevilla FC, and the UPO Entrepreneurship Club.

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The club was present at the Sportbitz Network in Warsaw

A few days ago, José Ramón Collado, the International Sports Projects Manager of Sevilla FC, represented the organization at the Sportbitz Network in Warsaw, Poland. An event attended by representatives from 15 countries and numerous European clubs.

Sevilla FC was able to showcase in Warsaw how it has implemented various digitization processes in all its areas in recent years, which have elevated the organization to very high sustainability standards. The congress enjoys great prestige, and this 2024 edition marked the 22nd, proving to be a success in terms of international business and sports conference. Over 60 speakers participated, presenting studies and specific success stories, such as the digitization process at Sevilla FC.

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Spectacular start to the 2024 Sports Data Forum

The 2024 edition of the Sports Data Forum kicked off this Thursday at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium with an inaugural session that brought together over 500 attendees, including various students from the different master’s programs promoted by the Innovation Center of Sevilla FC, Sports Data Campus, and the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM). The opening session was held in person and featured the participation of Sevilla FC President, José María del Nido Carrasco, and Sevilla’s sporting director, Víctor Orta.

The club’s president, alongside José María Cruz Gallardo, the head of Football R&D at Sevilla FC, officially welcomed all present, highlighting that the Sevilla FC Innovation Center is a pioneer in Spanish football, having received the category and license as an authorized sports teaching center, and emphasizing the club’s commitment to technological development. Through the Innovation Center, Sevilla FC aims to share with third parties, who are not direct competitors, all the knowledge acquired over the years.

One of the avenues for this sharing is the educational offerings provided through the Innovation Center, as explained by Juan Esteban Gómez Llamas, the head of Digitalization and Continuous Improvement at Sevilla FC: “Through the Sports Data Campus, one of our educational partners, we offer two master’s programs: Big Data in Scouting and Innovation and Technology in Sports Entities.” Víctor Orta took the opportunity to deliver a masterclass and moderate a panel discussion on the use of data in football analysis.

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All set at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium for the Sports Data Forum 2024!

Sevilla FC, through its Innovation Center, and in collaboration with Sports Data Campus and the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), is once again organising the ‘Sports Data Forum’, an event that is becoming more and more established and focused on the use of data applied to sport. Its fourth edition kicks off this Thursday in person at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, kicking off a format that will continue with a series of telematic sessions until 24 June. On Wednesday afternoon, the students had a first contact with an initial session at the stadium itself.

On Thursday, the president of Sevilla FC, José María del Nido Carrasco, will officially welcome the almost 500 guests for this inaugural session. This will be followed by a speech by Víctor Orta, sporting director of Sevilla FC, who will also give a master class session as a welcome and will moderate a round table discussion on data at the service of sporting management.

Football and sport are in full evolution thanks to digital transformation, the use of Big Data and Advanced Analytics, aspects in which Sevilla FC is an international reference, hence its convening power for the inauguration of an SDF 2024 that will address issues such as professional analysis of the game or the latest trends in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence applied to football.

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The Sevilla FC Innovation Center sponsors two entrepreneurship competitions at the UPO

The Sevilla FC Innovation Center will participate in two entrepreneurship competitions organized by the Pablo de Olavide University (UPO), through its Vice-Rectorate for Institutional Relations and Foundations. The first one is called ‘UPOemprende,’ which is already in its sixteenth edition and is part of the university’s Entrepreneurship Program. This competition is particularly aimed at individuals with a business idea or entrepreneurial project, as well as those who already have a company established based on knowledge acquired during their university studies or research results developed at the university as personnel. Among the prizes planned, there is one sponsored by the Sevilla FC Chair, which will award 900 euros to a company established within UPO. The necessary information can be found at this link.

Additionally, UPO also organizes the ‘III Hackathon UPOemprende,’ an event scheduled for April 25th, which also benefits from the collaboration of the Sevilla FC Foundation, in addition to the sponsorship of the SFC Chair: University, Business, and Sports. The chair will contribute a prize of 500 euros to be divided equally among the members of the winning team. The ‘III Hackathon UPOemprende’ aims to launch a challenge related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the university community, seeking solutions to it. The purpose is to raise awareness among the university community about the SDGs and promote and support creativity and the generation of solutions to the planet’s main problems through collaborative work.

This event is aimed at university students from any degree program, from any university or higher education institution in the province of Seville, enrolled in the academic year 2023/24. The deadline for submitting applications to participate in the III Hackathon UPOemprende has already begun and ends on April 23rd at 23:59.

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The III Blasco Garzón Awards were presented at Pablo de Olavide University

This Thursday, the award ceremony for the Blasco Garzón Awards, now in their third edition, was held in the press room of Pablo de Olavide University (UPO). These awards are part of the ‘Sevilla FC Chair: University, Business, and Sports’ established by the club at UPO. Through its Innovation Center, Sevilla FC recognizes the excellence of the best Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis presented by students enrolled at UPO, both in official programs and in continuing education. With this initiative, the club aims to promote study, initiate research, and transfer knowledge in various fields, in line with the primary objectives of its Innovation Center.

In this third edition, the winners were Pablo Quintana Sarti (Best Master’s Thesis in Business Category), Carmen Serrano Cañadillas (Best Master’s Thesis in Sports Category), Ana Marín Vázquez (Best Bachelor’s Thesis in Business Category), and María Cabello Fernández (Best Bachelor’s Thesis in Sports Category). Additionally, the Chair’s Council awarded an honorable mention to student Ane Fradua Ruiz de Azua.

Apart from Pablo Blanco, the event was attended by Laura López de la Cruz, Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Foundations, and Executive Vice-President of UPO Foundations, and Javier Gálvez González, Director of the Sevilla FC Chair. The Manuel Blasco Garzón Award pays tribute to the memory of the former president of Sevilla FC, under whose leadership the club achieved significant sporting success and notable social and institutional advancements. Not to forget, he was the one who welcomed a young man destined to write the best pages of the club’s history into his board: Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. Furthermore, Blasco Garzón was a ubiquitous figure in Seville’s social and cultural life of the time, serving, among other roles, as president of the Ateneo de Sevilla and promoting projects aimed at raising the cultural level in neighborhoods and contributing to citizens’ education, thereby aiding the fight against illiteracy.

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Training day at Sevilla FC facilities with students from LaLiga Business School

Events are unfolding at various facilities of Sevilla FC, both at their main stadium, the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, and at the José Ramón Cisneros Palacios Sports City. Specifically, this week, a training day was held at the Carretera de Utrera premises by LaLiga Business School, which was specially moved to the Andalusian capital for the occasion.

The modern facilities of the Jesús Navas Stadium primarily hosted sessions for two of the master’s degrees offered by LaLiga Business School: the Master’s in Football Management, Methodology, and Analysis, and the Master’s in Performance Optimization and Health. A total of 42 students from both courses enjoyed an exceptional day at the Sports City, where they attended conferences, toured the facilities, and had lunch. Among other activities, the students had the opportunity to attend sessions led by Víctor Orta, the sporting director of Sevilla FC, and Emilio de Dios, the club’s Scouting Manager. To conclude the day, they moved to the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán for a Stadium Tour, which delighted all attendees.

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Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium will once again host the opening session of the “Sports Data Forum 2024”.

Once again this year, Sports Data Campus and Sevilla FC will go hand in hand in the launch of the Sports Data Forum 2024. As usual, this training event, which will run from 21 March to 24 June, will be launched at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán with a very interesting face-to-face session. It will cover topics related to technology in football, such as data at the service of sports management, data analysis in professional football, data at the service of the coaching staff, physical preparation and AI in sport.

The Sports Data Forum is organised by Sevilla FC, Sports Data Campus and the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), with which the club has a fruitful agreement through the Sevilla FC Innovation Center. Although more speakers for this attractive initial session will be announced as the weeks go by, the Sevilla FC president, José María del Nido Carrasco, the sporting director, Víctor Orta, the head of Data Football, Jesús Olivera, as well as the head of R+D+i, José María Cruz Gallardo, have confirmed their participation. Details of the event, as well as how to attend this inaugural session, will be made available on the official website of the event.

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Sevilla FC presents Scout Advisor at the IBM Techxchange Summit 2024

Sevilla FC was present this Tuesday at the opening of the prestigious IBM TechXchange Summit, one of the most important technological congresses whose 2024 edition is taking place in Barcelona. An unbeatable opportunity to present Scout Advisor, the innovative Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that the club will use to identify and characterise players based on the natural language present in the scouting reports generated by its scouts, to an audience of more than 1,500 people.

Built on ‘watsonx’, IBM’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data platform for enterprises, Scout Advisor is being developed at the express request of Sevilla FC and complements its AiFootball and AiScouting tools by integrating with them in the future. Elías Zamora, data director of Sevilla FC, was in charge of presenting Scout Advisor on the main stage of the convention, together with the vice-president of IBM, Dinesh Nirmal, who had travelled to Spain and was wearing a Sevilla FC shirt for the occasion. They inaugurated the three-day event.

Scout Advisor makes it possible to automatically identify and characterise players based on textual information from hundreds of thousands of scouting reports. “We have probably the most extensive player database in football and now with Scout Advisor the process of searching and finding talent among so many reports will be much more accurate and faster. Generative artificial intelligence allows us to process the subjective aspects described with human language in its different forms and not only the objective data,” explained Elías Zamora.

The alliance between Sevilla FC and IBM confirms the club’s commitment to technological development, which has made it a reference in innovation in the world of football. In this sense, IBM did not hesitate to propose this collaboration with an entity, Sevilla FC, which it considers to be one of those high-level companies that create value and use technological innovation to transform the business, as admitted both Dinesh Nirmal this Tuesday in Barcelona and Fernando Suárez, director of Software in Spain for IBM, in the presentation to the media last week in Seville.

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Sevilla FC’s successful participation in the WFS in Saudi Arabia

The Asian edition of the World Football Summit (WFS), held this week in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), has allowed Sevilla FC to present its innovation proposal to clubs, federations, companies and other international organisations. One of the most important strategic pillars of the club, which seeks to increase its competitiveness at the highest level through technology. Sevilla FC offered itself to the world of football as a training and consultancy channel for entities seeking to make a qualitative leap in their growth, especially for clubs and federations in the MENA area.

Jesús Arroyo, assistant general manager of Sevilla FC, was in charge of presenting, under the name ‘A vision of the future through innovation’, this business plan, which has the Innovation Center as its cornerstone. Through it, the club shares its acquired knowledge and experience, which have made Sevilla FC an international benchmark, with third parties who want to train, whether players, coaches or directly with clubs and federations through a strategic alliance. After his presentation, the Sevillista manager held dozens of meetings and interviews with representatives of organisations interested in the proposal. The club has training offers for players through the ‘Soccer Academy’, the ‘Players Academy’ and an innovative project for a team made up of international players to compete in Spain at youth level. Also for coaches, with the ‘Sevilla FC Coaches Academy’, and managers, through various online master’s degrees thanks to synergies with different universities.

Also present at the WFS in Yeda was Elías Zamora, head of the Data Department, who took part in a round table to discuss the importance in a football club of an area that generates tools based on big data. So far, Sevilla FC has developed a series of its own tools to optimise all areas and business units of the club, with the success of Transfer Tracker in the showcase and with interesting new projects that will see the light of day in 2024.