As early as in the 1970s, not only sports scientists began to develop electronic analysis systems and integrate them into the sporting practice. Since the early 1990s, sports journalists have also been able to access statistical data on players and teams in the German Bundesliga. In Germany, a subsidiary of the German Football League (DFL) collaborates with other data service providers in order to determine the so-called “official” match data for the first and second Bundesliga. Such data can be accessed by corporate customers 24/7. This not only includes the soccer clubs themselves but also many communication media that are active in soccer coverage and sports reporting.
“Collection of such data has impacts that go beyond the mere technical recording of what happens during the game, it’s breakdown into individual events and translation into supposedly objective numbers and values. As a part of professional soccer, analytical methods have a variety of effects on the object itself”, explains Prof. Dr. Robert Schmidt, holder of the Chair of Process-Oriented Sociology at the KU. He continues to say that, for example, they had an influence on match tactics, transfer decisions and marketing strategies of soccer organizations, as well as an impact on media reporting and the communication behavior among soccer fans and led to changes in the field of professional soccer by adding new players, such as sports betting providers.
In order to gain an insight into the logics and effects of data-based analysis practices, Schmidt intends to investigate, amongst others also on site, how data is actually generated by match analysis companies. In his investigations, he is supported by Franziska Hodek and Max Weigelin (both research associates for the project) and Moritz Brinkmann (research assistant). In one case, for example, trained analysts classify match events on the basis of a definition catalog and enter them into databases during a live match. How do analysts accurately translate such match events and players’ body movements into numbers and data and make them available for redesign and reorganization of match and training practices and corresponding contexts?
For Schmidt, Hodek and Weigelin, one of the project’s aims is to close some gaps in sociological sports research: “We need to find out, to what extent accounting, quantification and evaluation influence tactics and playing techniques, the work of trainers, managers, doctors and other experts in sports management as well as the influence on media coverage”, says Schmidt. The project also investigates dissemination channels of data as well as conflicts that are induced by assessment criteria and valuation.
But the Eichstätt sociologists also expect to gain insights into a more general socio-cultural phenomenon going beyond soccer: “Quantification is a social development that we have increasingly observed in many areas of society over the last few decades – for example in education, science and health”, says Hodek. She explains that in this context, people try to translate phenomena, events or characteristics into numbers by applying corresponding methods. By doing so, they hope to gain evidence-based evaluations in which they can ground their decisions. “This is one way in which people try to control things.”