England World Cup draw: Can artificial intelligence help Thomas Tuchel win the 2026 tournament?

In addition to the coaches and physiotherapists who sit alongside coach Thomas Tuchel on the bench, the England squad includes groups of analysts, data scientists and in-house software development teams.

They use different AI tools – some purchased from external technology companies, others created within the FA – to analyze data, find interesting information, and create presentations that are used in meetings to make complex information understandable to coaches and players.

The idea is that England players will then be able to make better decisions on the pitch, including their approach to penalties.

“AI can show certain trends in terms of where opposition players are taking penalty kicks that we may not have thought about,” explains Rhys Long, who has been head of performance insights and analytics at the FA since 2016.

“When we get to World Cup finals, we have 47 teams’ worth of information to go by – where has every player on every team taken every penalty since they were 16?

“It used to take us five days to collect the equivalent of one team’s penalty take information. Using AI, that can now be reduced to about five hours. Then that becomes a five-minute conversation with our goalkeeper, for five seconds of which we hope they save a penalty.”

In theory, the penalty information on goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s water bottle is more accurate and detailed than ever before.

The results so far are strong.

Since Long’s arrival, England’s penalty scoring has improved significantly, and analysts are also using AI to reduce the mental pressure on England players choosing where to take their penalties.