Playermaker has officially been awarded the FIFA Quality and FIFA Basic certification to become the first, foot-worn tracking device to be allowed within official match play. With the green light from the International Football Association Board (IFAB), Playermaker can be worn by anyone in any match, backed by FIFA’s quality program, affirming the system’s exceptional accuracy.
What Does This Mean?
Playermaker will be widely accessible to players, not only in the professional level, but recreationally. Allowing the opportunity for all footballers to gain the knowledge of their technical performance and added safety that has not been readily available for them in the past.
Revolutionising Play: The 4-Year Journey of Playermaker’s Footwear Sensors to FIFA Approval
Originally, tracking devices have been worn as a vest on the player’s upper back. Since Playermaker is placed on the foot, many regulations did not consider this as permitted equipment. However, as the technology grew and gained recognition within the football world, Playermaker was invited to participate in the FIFA Innovation Programme, a pathway for new technologies to be tested and validated for official matches.
The approval did not happen overnight – in fact, the journey of acceptance was 4 years in the making and with shareable doubts by others. Playermaker CEO and Co-Founder Guy Aharon says: “Despite the skeptics who labeled us as crazy, doubting anyone would embrace sensors on their football boots, we persevered. Now, just a few years later FIFA has acknowledged the safety, precision, and undeniable future potential of footwear sensors in revolutionising the game for all.”
Basic summary of how these tests were conducted and the results are as followed:
1. Validating the Playermaker system compared to current electronic performance and tracking systems (EPTS) devices (FIFA Quality; Seville Testing 09/21).
2. The usability of using foot-wearing devices during matches, receiving practitioners/club advice, opinions and feedback on the application and exploring safety further with comparisons to previous injury surveillance (The English FA/ Leeds University).
3. No injuries were reported as a consequence of wearing the Playermaker devices. Specifically studied through 46,600 individual player training (2 seasons; 20/21 & 21/22) and match (1 season; 21/22) sessions, as part of the work with the FA and Leeds Beckett University.
4. Clubs were able to utilise the technical aspects, including team possession statistics, video integration and gait metrics during the project – insights unavailable from other current EPTS providers.
5. All FIFA safety testing protocols as outlined by current EPTS guidelines were passed by Playermaker and finally, Playermaker completed the FIFA Innovation Programme, resulting in “well above” industry standard.
Guy Aharon: “We are thrilled to be the first ever foot-mounted wearable device to carry with pride the FIFA Innovation Programme mark. This is a huge milestone both for Playermaker and for technology in professional sport, paving the way for connected foot mounted wearable sensors to be the gold standard of player development technology around the world. We thank FIFA for its support and innovation in making this possible, it is fantastic to see this esteemed organisation committing and investing in integrated technological advances.”
Interested in learning more about how Playermaker helps Football Clubs optimise technical, tactical, and physical capabilities?
