WFS17

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LaLiga x WFS partnership extends into fifth year
LaLiga x WFS partnership extends into fifth year 1266 710 WFS Live

World Football Summit and LaLiga are celebrating a fifth-year of partnership, with the Spanish top-flight renewing as Global Partners of the second edition of WFS Live from November 23-27.

Since the very first World Football Summit in October of 2016, to July’s inaugural digital WFS event, LaLiga has been central to making each and every one of our summits so successful. 

The relationship between the two companies began five years ago with LaLiga president Javier Tebas giving a keynote speech titled “The future of the professional football industry”. 

Tebas – who has gone on to become a regular top-tier speaker at WFS events – was joined by more LaLiga directors at our debut that featured Javier Gómez (then Corporate Managing Director) debating football investment and Pedro Malabia (then Women’s Football Director) discussing the league’s investment in the women’s game.

By May, 2017 LaLiga became WFS Global Partners for the first time – a moment of great pride for both institutions to be able to make the partnership official.

“We’re delighted to collaborate with WFS,” said Tebas at the time. “The work they’re doing to improve each year is excellent and it’s important for LaLiga to present our work at this knowledge sharing forum, where the top representatives in the world of football meet. We want to actively participate in this and help grow the sports industry.”

That’s exactly what has happened ever since. LaLiga has been a highly engaged and influential participant at all subsequent WFS events; from Madrid to Bilbao, to Kuala Lumpur and beyond, producing some incredibly memorable moments along the way.

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What a great opening day at #WFSLive, we really couldn't have hoped for any better. Here are some of the top-lines from our superb day one panels.⁣ ⁣ 🗣️ “Together we’ve tried to ensure rights don’t lose value. We’ve realised Together we can do things better. That UEFA and the big clubs should not go on their own. I think that has weakened the Super League project quite a lot.” – @javier.tebas ⁣ ⁣ 🗣️ "We tend to have this feeling as women of not being good enough, but I actually think it's an asset because it always pushed me to be the best version of myself, always striving for excellence." – @desiree.bellia ⁣ ⁣ 🗣️ "There are too many football clubs, the players are over-remunerated and leagues will have to be run more efficiently and professionally.” – Sir Martin Sorrell⁣ ⁣ 🗣️ "We need to be very creative through these times. with sponsors, we are speaking about how they want to go, what are their resources and maybe if we can offer them something different with new propositions.” – @luigidelaurentiis

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LaLiga were due to also feature prominently at our WFS Africa and FIF20 events before their coronavirus-enforced postponements, and were there once again when we got back up and running online in July.

Tebas opened WFS Live in a wide-ranging interview with  journalist Alfredo Matilla, and the Spanish league’s president was a fitting curtain-raiser due to both his and LaLiga‘s long-standing commitment to WFS.

Elsewhere, Alfredo Bermejo, Ivan Codina and Albert Castelló all represented LaLiga at WFS Live, where we also had the pleasure of sharing a workshop from the league.

Tickets are now on sale for November’s WFS Live event and are available via THIS LINK.

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Ismael Fernández (ThermoHuman): “Technology is going to be crucial to make things feel normal”
Ismael Fernández (ThermoHuman): “Technology is going to be crucial to make things feel normal” 1840 1209 WFS Live

Ismael Fernández is the co-founder of ThermoHuman, a pioneer company specialized in the use of Infrared Thermography to prevent injuries. We met Casado two years ago, when ThermoHuman became the second winner of the WFS StartCup by GSIC. We recently caught up with him to talk about the challenges that the sports industry will have to face in the “new normal” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and how technology can help overcome these challenges.

Q. First of all, tell us briefly about your company, what solutions does it provide and what partners are you currently working with with in the sports industry?

A. ThermoHuman is a pioneer company specialized in the use of Infrared Thermography to prevent injuries, to monitor them and to improve performance in humans. During the last 10 years we have been researching (8 PhD and more that 40 scientific articles published) and working with health, research and sport institutions (LaLiga, PSG, Everton FC, Houston Rockets, etc.). The results showed up to a 70% reduction of muscle injuries. The system is based on a camera that takes thermal images from subjects and a software that uses computer vision algorithms to let us know in a matter of seconds which body regions might have any potential risk of injury: fast, non-invasive and objective. Our main added value is focused in creating artificial intelligence based on machine learning and computer vision algorithms to identify automatically body regions in thermal images from humans, and also neural networks to create prediction features associated with thermal patterns and pathologies/injuries. In addition to that, we have now developed a specific application for COVID-19 based on elevated temperature face detection in real time.

Q. Why did you decide to participate in the WFS StartCup competition? What goals were you aiming to achieve?

A. We know very well the reputation of such an event and we considered that our technology fits perfectly in the approach of WFS StartCup by GSIC Our goals were to test if experts on the field and the audience might think the same, to show and explain our technology and benefits (which are unknown for almost everyone) and obviously to gain visibility and strength our brand in the sector.

 

Ismael Fernández receives the WFS StartCup award from Iris Cordoba in 2017.

Q. What impact did winning the WFS StartCup competition have on your project?

A. World Football Summit has become a reference event at a national and international level in a very short time. Having had the fortune to participate and win the StartCup has been an immense help in our great objective of publicizing the application of thermography for the prevention and monitoring of injuries in sports and health sector. It is difficult to measure the impact, but it has certainly helped us improve our positioning and brand image, and that is something very valuable in a project like ours.

Q. Technology has been playing a crucial role in sports for quite some time now, but its importance will still be increasing in the upcoming years. In which areas would you say we can expect more impact in the coming years?

A. No doubt we are going to undergo a long process to what we knew as “normality”. In our opinion, technology is going to play a crucial role in making everything seem as “normal” as possible: fan engagement, stadiums, television, sharing experiences, health control, etc.

 

Q. COVID-19 is going to present new and unprecedented challenges for the sports industry once competitions resume. How do you think technology can help overcome these challenges? What new developments do you eye?

A. As I mentioned before, technology is going the help us feel we are closer to what we know as “normality”. Reducing the COVID-19 risk and making the football experience as much real as possible are the main challenges. From our side, we can help mitigating the risk of infection using our technology in sport venues and stadiums by screening fans and players to detect body elevated temperature.

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