Meet the Company Changing the Game Behind the Scenes of Football

Antony Zouzout is the co-founder and CEO of Sports Education Hub, a collection of companies aimed at helping clubs across the world transform their backroom staff without transformative investment.

“Instead of hiring a scout, video analyst and data analyst [Seperately]... you only have to hire one guy”. The company works out of Miami and generally helps USL and NCAA teams make the most of their investments.

“I see cameras everywhere in training and matches… [Teams] don't have anyone skilled enough to analyse the videos” It's not just staff for clubs that @SportsEdu helps with, its agents too. After seeing his friend fail the infamously difficult French Agent exams, he co-founded a company aimed at helping people across the world become qualified agents and enter the world of football transfers.

And, it’s working.

The company sees a 90%+ success rate in the FIFA agent Exams across the globe, and is one of the leading platforms in the industry. “The exams every year get harder, I don’t know why, they need agents, trained agents”

There has been a lot of discourse over the monopoly some agents have over large parts of the game, such as Jorge Mendes, and Mino Raiola before his death, who have potentially thousands of footballers in their books.

Many people argue the negative effect this can have on the game, not only with huge agent fees, but also unfair advantages to clubs affiliated with the agents, for example Wolves’ controversial championship promotion. Looking to the future, Antony and SportsEdu understand the growing importance of AI in the sporting world, and has developed tools for agents and backroom staff.

"Agents always have worries about regulations in the back of their minds… this is like having a lawyer in your back pocket” The goal is not to replace humans with AI, but to help guide them and reduce the use of third parties in decision making for clubs and its staff, helping to reduce unnecessary costs for clubs that might not be able to afford the increasing costs of professional help.

The future of football seems destined to be defined by companies such as Sports Educations Hub, and in an increasingly costly and uncertain world, the streamlining of backroom staff could help to reduce the ever growing gap between the rich and the poor in the world of football.

Written by Toby Lenton