Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

The expanded 48-team World Cup kicked off on Thursday. For fans worldwide, the central question remains unchanged: Who will lift the trophy? Alongside the pre-tournament artificial intelligence (AI)-generated predictions about the ultimate winners, football is quietly undergoing another transformation brought on by AI. 

Across global football, AI is no longer an experimental tool. It is embedded in the development of the modern game. Video Assistant Referee (VAR) systems, semi-automated offside technology and match balls equipped with sensors have turned elite football into a highly digitized one. 

In top international competitions, AI-powered systems now assist referees by tracking player positions and generating rapid 3D reconstructions of key incidents, allowing offside decisions to be made in seconds rather than minutes. These systems rely on computer vision and stadium-wide camera networks that produce continuous tracking data for every player on the pitch. 

At the same time, AI is transforming how teams prepare themselves for matches. 

Clubs and national teams increasingly rely on data platforms that process millions of data points per game to analyze player movement, tactical patterns and physical output. Sports companies are working to provide AI-driven tracking and performance data to support scouting and performance analysis. 

In parallel, advanced tactical tools such as AI-assisted systems developed in collaboration with elite clubs have demonstrated that machine learning can help coaches simulate set-piece variations and optimize positioning decisions in ways that were previously impossible.

This shift is reshaping the role of coaching staff. Modern top-level managers such as Thomas Tuchel, head coach of England, Julian Nagelsmann, head coach of Germany, and Luis Enrique's data-led staff at the European Champions League-winning Paris Saint-Germain are widely associated with data-heavy preparation methods, using visual dashboards, analytical models and real-time feedback to refine tactics and communicate ideas more precisely. 

In these environments, football decisions are no longer made solely through intuition or experience; they are increasingly supported by computational insight. 

For Chinese football, the significance of these developments lies not in copying elite football practice, but in addressing several long-standing structural weaknesses.

Importantly, this transformation is not just about improving accuracy or efficiency at the top level. It is also about redefining how football knowledge is created and distributed. In many advanced football countries such as England, Spain and Germany, AI acts as an amplifier of already well-developed systems. But for countries still building their football infrastructure, such as China, the implications may be more fundamental.

Chinese football has long faced structural challenges in talent identification, coaching consistency and the continuity of player development. Training methods can vary significantly between regions, and much of the knowledge in grass-roots football remains dependent on individual coaches rather than systematically shared systems. As a result, promising young players are sometimes identified late, or not at all, while valuable training insights are lost when coaches move between clubs or schools.

This is where AI could play a different role. Instead of being seen only as a high-end tool for elite competition analysis, it can function as a structural solution for system building. A properly deployed AI system can help standardize training plans across youth academies, track player development over long periods, and ensure that performance data is not lost as athletes move through different stages of their careers. 

In theory, this could allow China to build a continuous digital record of player development from grass-roots level upward, something that even many established football nations are still working to refine. If AI tools are integrated into youth development programs, they could help bridge gaps between schools, academies, and professional clubs. 

For example, training sessions could be recorded and analyzed to track a player's technical progress, and coaching recommendations could be generated based on large-scale comparisons rather than a coach's personal experience.

However, it is important not to overstate what AI can achieve. Football remains fundamentally a human game. It is shaped by creativity, emotional pressure, physical instinct and unpredictable moments that no algorithm can fully anticipate. Even the most advanced predictive computational models struggle with football's inherent uncertainty. This is part of what makes the sport globally compelling: Outcomes are never fully controllable, even when probabilities are carefully modeled.

What AI can do, however, is reduce inefficiencies. It can help coaches make better-informed decisions, help scouts identify overlooked talent, and help young players receive more structured feedback. A well-designed AI system can allow a small youth academy in a less developed region to access analytical capabilities that were previously available only to elite European clubs with large budgets and specialized staff.

This is perhaps the most important lesson from football's AI transformation for football's developing countries. For Chinese football, the opportunity lies not in trying to "catch up" with the most advanced teams through technological upgrades, but in using AI to strengthen the foundations of the entire system. That means building continuity in player development, improving the consistency of coaching methods, and ensuring that data and experience are not lost between generations.

The World Cup will continue to be decided by the players' talent on the pitch. But increasingly, the conditions that produce those moments are shaped long before the opening whistle, inside databases, training platforms and analytical systems powered by AI. The question for Chinese football is whether it can fully integrate into this new infrastructure of the game, not just as a user of technology, but also as a system that learns from it.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn