The Football Science Institute is a new collaborator with the VCF Innovation Hub for their investigation and exchange of scientific knowledge. Bernardo Requena, CEO and founder of the institute, talks about the platform that will optimise training and learning.

How did the idea of ​​the Football Science Institute come about?

"The Football Science Institute (FSI) was born out of the need to create an institution dedicated exclusively to the dissemination and generation of knowledge applied to the context of elite football. Until the birth of FSI, this only occurred at universities in certain research groups or in clubs and federations where applied science departments had been created. With FSI, everything has been combined an entity with a single main objective: to generate scientific knowledge applicable to the football training process."

How does it work and what are its objectives?

"The FSI has several objectives. On the one hand, FSI is a graduate school for all those who want to do a specific Master's degree on a subject that enables them to work professionally in football. FSI is made up of more than 150 professionals linked to elite football. All of them, according to their specialisation, participate in the different postgraduate courses carried out cooperatively, with a common pattern: The course is made by professionals, for future professionals.

The second major objective of FSI is to generate research within the clubs themselves and thereby promote the improvement of the procedures carried out in the training process. Likewise, FSI intends to serve as a platform with which to facilitate the updating of knowledge in those people who are already professionals in the world of football through conferences, clinics and our membership program.

Finally, we want to encourage our students to get closer to people and companies that could eventually offer them a job opportunity. For them, agreements with contracting entities such as clubs, like this one with Valencia CF, favour this interaction through internship programs."

Why is it important for FSI to collaborate with football teams and, in particular, with Valencia CF?

"For FSI, the collaboration with Valencia CF is an ideal opportunity to be able to undertake the objectives we mentioned earlier; especially the possibility of carrying out research projects within the club according to their interests, and of being able to promote the exchange of information between professionals at the club and the FSI."

How can you help a football team like Valencia CF?

"On the one hand, FSI will allow VCF professionals to take our courses and access our conferences and membership program, and thereby contribute to a possible updating of their knowledge. Also, a research project will be developed between the professionals at the club and some of the FSI professionals, intended to optimise the training process that is currently being developed at the club."

If you had to choose just 3 words to define the Football Science Institute, what would they be?

"Innovation, knowledge and football."