The FA unveils Google as official cloud and data analytics partner

The FA is uniting Google Cloud as it seeks to utilise data and analytics to elevate the success of all England teams.

The four-year partnership will see Google Cloud become the official cloud and data analytics partner for England and St. George’s Park.  

Dave Reddin, The FA’s head of team strategy and performance, commented: “We believe technology is a key area of potential competitive advantage for our 28 teams and everything we do at St. George’s Park. We have progressively built a systematic approach to developing winning England teams and through the support of Google Cloud technology we wish to accelerate our ability to translate insight and learning into performance improvements.”

The introduction of G Suite applications such as Google Drive, Sheets and Hangouts has already improved collaboration between technical staff to further enhance the wider England player pathway.

Craig Donald, The FA’s chief information officer, added on the partnership: “The first step in our transformation at St. George’s Park was to unify the way our coaches train and develop our 28 national teams to increase productivity. We needed the ability to collaborate and share across all the team managers. G Suite allowed us to do that and was the first part of our Google Cloud partnership.”

Furthermore, the on-going development of a new Player Profile System (PPS), leveraging Google Cloud smart analytics and data management solutions, will be used to measure performance, fitness, training and form of players at all levels. That real-time data will better inform coaches during the decision-making process.       

As well as helping to enable winning England teams, the Google Cloud partnership will also explore ways to further support The FA’s other strategic priorities such as doubling female participation and making football inclusive and open to all.

Baroness Sue Campbell, director of women’s football at The FA, also stated: “The FA’s mission is to develop the game for all. I am looking forward to partnering with Google Cloud to see how technology can tackle some of these societal challenges.”

The FA will joining reigning NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors in benefiting from Google’s secure, open, intelligent and transformative enterprise cloud platform, following the pair announcing a similar partnership in February 2019.

Previous articleBeIN Sports scores new broadcast deal for Women’s World Cup
Next articleThe NBA strengthens Indian presence with social streams