FIFPRO
FIFPRO
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10/10/2025
  • The Player IQ Tech Experience Tour 2025, focused on accelerating player health and performance, will take place on 12-17 October 2025 across two American cities
  • Player IQ Tech addresses the urgent need to facilitate an effective understanding of emerging technology and its application to the working and environment of players
  • Both locations – Cleveland and New York City – will host globally renowned medical experts, performance specialists, player association leaders, technology innovators, and sports industry decision-makers

The eagerly anticipated second edition of the FIFPRO Player IQ Tech Experience Tour is set to kick off on 12-17 October 2025 in USA, where it will showcase how technology and data are transforming player welfare, performance, and commercial opportunities.

Since its first tour in 2023, Player IQ Tech has addressed the urgent need to facilitate an effective understanding of emerging technology and its application to the working environment of footballers. It provides player unions with a consistent framework to enhance their knowledge and manage player-centric innovation in the football industry that impact performance, recruitment and commercial realities.

The 2025 tour begins in Cleveland, where it will bring together renowned medical experts, player association leaders, technology innovators, and sports industry decision-makers to examine the pivotal role of AI in healthcare, biometrics, and performance analytics.

"The experience tour will explore cutting-edge medical and health technologies alongside ongoing performance and recovery innovations," said Alexander Bielefeld, FIFPRO’s Director of Global Policy & Strategic Relations (Men’s Football). "It will provide an opportunity for player unions, football stakeholders, medical experts, and technology experts to discuss the integration of modern technologies for a safer, more informed football industry that prioritises player welfare, career longevity, peak performance and fair employment for tomorrow."

Cleveland: Fusing athletic performance and tech advancement

USA serves as a strategic location for the Player IQ Tech Experience Tour as an innovation hub and powerhouse of sports with the country hosting the World Cup final in July 2026. The first leg of the Player IQ Tech Tour kicks off in Cleveland – in collaboration with the world-leading Cleveland Clinic – on 12-14 October, focusing on health and performance innovation.

Workshops and panels featuring medical experts, performance specialists from MLS clubs, player association executives, tech leaders, and representatives from football bodies such as UEFA will tackle: 

  • AI and Modern Technology: Predicting risk, outcomes and injury
  • Orthopaedic and Recovery Innovations: Extending longevity and capability
  • Neuro-Cognitive Performance: Unlocking a new competitive edge
  • Biometrics and Load Management: Balancing player performance
  • Data Standardisation: Rethinking education and frameworks

Bob Foose, Executive Director of Major League Soccer Players’ Association, explains its critical for players associations to engage across the three categories of performance and health data: medical, employment, and commercial.

"When we fully grasp the complexities involved across each category, we become more effective advocates for and advisors to the athletes we represent," said Foose. "An understanding of these interconnected domains is essential for players to make informed decisions about their careers."

The Player Economy

After Cleveland, the focus of the Player IQ Tech Experience Tour will shift to New York City on 15-17 October, where player data rights management and consent will be under the spotlight.

Hosted at the MLBPA Headquarters, this segment of the tour will analyse commercial priorities across sports and illustrate the urgent need for enhanced player data protection and management frameworks – ensuring fair, transparent and commonly agreed commercial activation is in the best interest of the game and its players.

"Building on our exploration of medical and performance innovations, the experience tour also examines the evolving commercial landscape where emerging on-pitch data technologies meet traditional assets like name, image and likeness rights," said FIFPRO’s Chief Commercial Officer Al Buset. "This dialogue between stakeholders is crucial to ensure innovation serves players and their unions first, fostering sustainable commercial growth that enhances both career opportunities and industry integrity for the future."

Keep up to date with the Player IQ Tech Experience Tour throughout next week on FIFPRO’s X page.