Highlights of TGG Live 2025

Francisco Belo, the Head of Football Data Insights at Nottingham Forest, spoke about The humans behind the data during an excellent presentation on Day One. And at the end of the first day, delegates were gripped by a compelling closing keynote from England blind footballer and entrepreneur Azeem Amir on Challenging perceptions and breaking down barriers.

On Day Two, we had an insightful Cohesive coaching panel with Lommel’s Lee Johnson, former Manchester United and England defender Phil Jones and John-Mark Sisman, who is a Data Scientist with our Headline Sponsor Teamworks. The trio discussed how a Head Coach, player and data scientist can work together effectively. 

With the event taking place at Old Trafford, it was fitting that our closing Day Two panel was about Developing players the Manchester United way, with Ryan Giggs, the most decorated player in the history of the Premier League, Tony Strudwick, the former Manchester United Head of Performance, and current player Tom Heaton, who grew up at the club. 

The trio gave insights into what made Sir Alex Ferguson such an outstanding leader, while also looking at the present and future of the club.

The closing keynote from Michael Caulfield perfectly encapsulated what had been spoken about in so many of the sessions, with his talk about Human connection and joy.

“It is a beautiful random game,” Brentford’s psychologist said. “I hope we can somehow keep it that way, because, as Sir Matt (Busby) said, it is about people.”

This year we also focused on the women’s game – and on women working in the men’s game. Sarah Batters, the Managing Director of the London City Lionesses, delivered the Day Two keynote, outlining how the only independent club in the Women’s Super League are doing things differently and showing the way for others.

Louisa Collis, the only female Academy Manager in England, gave insights into how Birmingham City have climbed back to Category One status, becoming one of the leading Academies in the whole country. 

This year we also introduced breakouts for the first time, in response to feedback from delegates at previous events. On Day One, these sessions were Scouting Africa, with African scouting expert Joe Mulberry and Nnamdi Emofo, the Chief Executive of Afriskaut; Recruiting for success on the transition with SkillCorner Data Analyst Liam Bailey; and How top clubs are leveraging blood data with Marc Cleary of Orreco.

The Day Two breakouts were Reframing performance in women’s football with Dr Stacey Emmonds of The Football Association and Paul Balsom of UEFA; and Developing people, teams and performance with Simone Lewis, the Director of consultancy Performance Focus.

There were so many other memorable sessions too: on Day One, the opening keynote with Ged Roddy MBE, who offered a global perspective on the game; the Chief Executive panel, with Christian Nourry (QPR), Sarah Guilfoyle (Wigan Athletic) and Polly Bancroft (Grimsby Town); the Teamworks fireside chat with Gareth Quinn and Dr Daniel Beiderbeck of Borussia Dortmund; the Recruitment Q&A with Mariela Nisotaki, the Head of Group Talent Acquisition at Sport Republic; and a Genius Sport panel on How AI is reshaping player analysis.

On Day Two, we had an excellent opening talk from Andrew Trimble, the Director of Athlete Performance at Headline Sponsor Teamworks; the Sporting Director panel, which has become a real fixture at TGG Live, with Adam Underwood (Leeds United), Lee Dykes (Brentford) and Mladen Sormaz (Barnsley); and an insightful session on AI for player trading workflows, with Lee Darnbrough, the Head of Recruitment at Port Vale, and Marc Garnica, the Lead Data Engineer at Gemini Sports.

At the end of Day One, we had networking drinks and dinner, held in the Salford Grill and sponsored by Gemini Sports.

Altogether, we had more than 450 delegates from dozens of clubs and federations from countries including the UK, Germany, Belgium, the United States and more. 

Elliott Stapley, the Assistant Sporting Director at Southampton, said: “There have already been three or four conversations with high ups at different clubs I maybe wouldn’t have run into at different conferences so it’s great to have that access.”

Sarah Batters, the Managing Director of the London City Lionesses, said: “The crowd were really warm and interested. 

“Lots of people were asking me lots of questions about women’s football and the London City Lionesses. I also talked to lots off people about different innovations and products they were working on that can support everyone in football and especially women’s football.”

Zaheer Shah, the Head of Football Methodology at Tottenham, said: “The two highlights I’ve had were Francisco’s talk, around the humans behind the data, and the second one was the keynote speaker, Azeem.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were tears at the end of that, it was excellent. I felt amazing coming out of that.”