"Football at the crossroads of digital and social?"

Stéphane Martin is a former president of the Girondins de Bordeaux and investor in Sport Tech.

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In all areas of the world, innovation is surging in relentless waves. The world of football is no exception to this fever which is changing the face of the most popular sport on the planet ... Of course, the good old leather ball has not yet been replaced by a connected projectile made of synthetic materials; the rules of the game only evolve in very small steps - how many years, of regulatory dribbling and diplomatic passing of the legs did it not take, for example, to introduce video assistance in refereeing ? -; natural grass is still resistant to hybrid lawns and synthetic surfaces ...

But for the rest, what upheavals!

Smart cameras, sensors, avalanches of statistics, inflation of “engaging” content on social networks allowing digital weddings to be celebrated with supporters, or even the creation of cryptocurrencies at the initiative of the big clubs, not to mention the groundswell of the "Gamification": this secular sport sometimes accused of conservatism has made its digital transformation with force march.

What arouse the interest or even the amazement of economists, sociologists, anthropologists or public decision-makers ...

AI, big data and virtualization are certainly not the opponents of muscle and sweat, but they are not necessarily their automatic natural allies either.

Stéphane Martin and David Brunat

Who would have seriously thought, a few years ago, that the big European clubs would start minting money and arrogating to themselves a prerogative long reserved for States, namely the ability to issue a currency or a quasi-currency thanks to the boom in

and cryptocurrencies?

And to pay their players with it ?!

PSG in France, FC Barcelona in Spain, Juventus and AC Milan in Italy, Manchester City in Great Britain and other teams have acquired this astonishing power by acquiring their own currency.

Crypto currency, certainly, but ringing and stumbling.

As well, Lionel Messi's contract in the capital club provides that an amount equivalent to more than 80,000 euros per month will be allocated to him in "

», The PSG cryptocurrency.

So named because supporters can acquire it and at the same time benefit from voting rights allowing them to give their opinion on certain initiatives and decisions of the club ... A kind of participatory sports democracy.

And shareholder democracy.

But independent of traditional stock exchange circuits since the PSG is not listed on the stock exchange.

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Having them or not - tokens - may in the near future become an existential concern for supporters.

As it used to be for young balloon fans whether or not they own a certain Panini image - a collector's trophy and a bargaining chip!

It is also highly emblematic of the power of this digital revolution at work that the most important fundraising in the history of

French

, all sectors combined, did not benefit from a young shoot involved in in the fields of health, energy, the environment, banking and insurance, carpooling and even the food industry, but also in the production of digital football player cards. The start-up Sorare thus crushed the competition by raising $ 680 million, far ahead of all the nuggets of

,

,

,

… What a strike force, what financial penetration!

The supporter is not only a customer and a consumer.

It is also a stakeholder in club life, a driving force behind the show, with its atmospheres and rituals.

Stéphane Martin and David Brunat

But in these major capitalistic and technological maneuvers, what societal baseline? The social question deserves to return to the heart of the game. For if one sees all the reserves of economic value and all the media potential of this new digital Eldorado of football, nothing guarantees a priori that benefit

to some of the major challenges of our time: namely, the capacity of our society to meet - or not - the challenges facing it in terms of public health, social and territorial cohesion, inclusion of people in difficulty. And this at a time when amateur practice is declining.

Indeed, no assurance that the circulation of blockchain tokens is accompanied by greater circulation of the round ball in our neighborhoods.

No certainty that the very high degree of audiovisual sophistication in the capture of professional meetings makes young people want to push the ball more.

No proof that the countless games around football - consoles or “

” - that gamification around betting or that the proliferation of blogs really stimulates amateur practice over time.

AI, big data and virtualization are certainly not the opponents of muscle and sweat, but they are not necessarily their automatic natural allies either.

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However, it is clear that the

ecosystem

only devotes a tiny part of its energy, inventiveness and resources to the development of amateur practice, which nevertheless represents both a duty and a stake. economic capital for clubs. Because the supporter is not only a customer and a consumer. It is also a stakeholder in club life, a driving force behind the show, with its atmospheres and rituals. He plays his role in the scenography of the matches and in the life of the teams. He participates in the match and it is also for him that we come to the stadium!

The capture and analysis of matches have never been more sophisticated, the offer of live matches in full has never been so rich.

All things which, logically, also help to fix the viewer in his sofa.

How then to attract the public in the stadiums?

One of the most natural targets is the practitioner, and especially the young.

The professional world makes people dream and digital technology undoubtedly contributes to fueling dreams, but nothing replaces the educator, effective practice with his balloon-to-foot encounters, and the resulting diversity.

Crucible of the social bond once celebrated by Albert Camus for its humanity and its moral dimension, football must return to the triumphant age of tech with its vocation as an actor in the life of the City.

Stéphane Martin and David Brunat

If the clubs succeed in encouraging amateur practice, they will win on all counts.

And they will be better off, including financially, because by successfully carrying out their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) missions, they will all the more easily and sustainably attract sponsors in search of meaning and "raison d'être". .

Crucible of the social bond once celebrated by Albert Camus for its humanity and its moral dimension, football must return to the

triumphant

age of

with its vocation as an actor in the life of the City and establish itself not only as a laboratory. digitalization of leisure and a hyper-creative showcase for

, but also as a vanguard of social innovations.

The quality of the French championship, the results of our clubs and our national teams - male and female -, as well as the unprecedented excellence and attractiveness of French digital companies, oblige us.

They are pushing us to invest relentlessly in this direction.

A formidable challenge to take up, but an exhilarating and oh so useful match to play!