Sports Engineering - Topical Collection: Football Research II
Guest Editors: Dr. Marcus Dunn, Heriot-Watt University, UK Mr. Johsan Billingham, FIFA, Switzerland Dr. Olivia Greenhalgh, ProMotion, UK Dr. Katrine Okhlom Kryger, St Mary’s University, UK and FIFA, Switzerland Prof. Sam Robertson, Victoria University, Australia Prof. Steph Forrester, Loughborough University, UK Prof. Paul Fleming, Loughborough University, UK Prof. Jacqueline Alderson, University of Western Australia, Australia Ms. Floriane Magera, EVS Broadcast Equipment, Belgium Dr. John Hart, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 1 June 2026
Description In football, technologies are being used to measure and monitor every facet of the game. This includes game analysis, player tracking, officiating, playing surface assessment, and football-surface, -player and -environment interaction. The Topical Collection on Football Research II is a collaborative initiative between FIFA, the International Sports Engineering Association, and the Sports Engineering journal. The collection has been launched to increase awareness of the ongoing research and development that is contributing to new technologies being used in football. Researchers involved in football research are invited to submit research articles, technical notes or reviews.
Please indicate your intention to submit a paper to this Topical Collection with an email to the Guest Editors. Please include a tentative title and indicate the type of paper (original research, review, technical note).
Submitted papers should present original, unpublished work, relevant to one of the topics of the Topical Collection. All submitted papers will be evaluated on the basis of relevance, significance of contribution, technical quality, scholarship, and quality of presentation, by at least two independent reviewers. It is the policy of the journal that no submission, or substantially overlapping submission, be published or be under review at another journal or conference at any time during the review process. Final decisions on all papers are made by the Editor-in-Chief.
Marcus Dunn is an Assistant Professor in Sports Engineering and Biomechanics at Heriot-Watt University. His research focuses on the development of applied measurement systems to advance human movement assessment in representative and real-world settings. Marcus has published more than 40 scientific articles and works with elite sports, international sports governing bodies, sports infrastructure companies and test laboratories, and sportswear companies. The industry-focused nature of his research has aided research partnerships and informed real-world change in international football. Marcus led the first Topical Collection on Football Research, published in Sports Engineering.
Johsan Billingham is the Research Manager for FIFA's Football Technology & Innovation division. With a decade of experience in Sport Technology & Research, his focus lies in cultivating synergies among academia, technology, and football to drive innovative solutions beneficial to the entire football ecosystem. Johsan's research ranges from validation of Semi-Automated Offside Technology, showcased at the men's and women's FIFA World Cups, to advancing understanding of footballs, to enhance safety and performance. Johsan believes strongly that global collaboration and dissemination of findings are an integral component to better organise research in football, to achieve maximum impact.
Olivia Greenhalgh has worked on several collaborative research projects testing the efficacy and effectiveness of clinical and sports equipment. She was the Associate on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) developing an evidence-base to support a rehabilitation device, currently sold in the elite sport market. Olivia was presented a 'Future Leader' award at the 2021 ‘KTP Best of the Best' awards and was shortlisted for 'Knowledge Transfer/Exchange of the Year 2022' at the Times Higher Education Awards. Olivia has recently completed her PhD at MMU, investigating the development of cryotherapy protocols for knee injury management. She plays semi-professional football in the FA National League.
Katrine Okholm Kryger is an Associate Professor in Sports Medicine at St Mary's University, Twickenham (UK) and Medical Researcher at FIFA. Kat also possesses advisory roles within UEFA and works closely with national associations, and clubs to support the growth of women’s football. Kat focuses her work and research on the medical and technological aspects of women’s football. Her research aims to level the playing field through improved sex-specific evidence-based practice. Key research topics include women’s football boots and the women’s football research agenda.
Sam Robertson is a researcher and consultant, largely focusing on human-technology integration in the sporting context. He has published more than 150 scientific articles on topics spanning sports innovation, skill acquisition, analytics and organisational decision making. Sam has worked with professional sporting teams and governing bodies around the world in a range of sports including football, basketball, tennis, golf, baseball and Australian Rules football. He is also the host of the popular future of sport podcast, One Track Mind.
Steph Forrester is Professor of Sports Engineering and Biomechanics at Loughborough University. Her research focuses on artificial turf sports surfaces, player-surface interactions, and related biomechanics. Her work has had significant impact including: the development of advanced player-surface interaction tests for use in the FIFA standards for football turf; improving and optimising the maintenance processes conducted on artificial turf pitches; and biomechanical input to a commercial running technique sensor. Steph has supervised 13 PhD students to completion, has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal publications and has editorial duties on a number of leading journals in sports engineering and biomechanics.
Paul Fleming has a background in Geotechnical Engineering with more than 35 years’ experience. Since 2002 he has developed and led the Sports Surface Research Group at Loughborough University, working with colleagues on innovations in pitch base design, sustainable drainage, innovative pitch and materials testing; biomechanical performance, injury risk, player perception of comfort and risk, and optimising maintenance practice and effectiveness. Paul has supervised more than 20 PhD students to completion and published over 150 refereed articles, serves on several industry facing committees and the UKRI peer review college, and been a guest editor of several special issues.
Jacqueline Alderson is Co-Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Professor of Biomechanics at The University of Western Australia. She is a 2023-24 Fulbright Senior Scholar, former Executive Council member of the International Society of Biomechanics, and Fellow, former Director, and 2024 Geoffrey Dyson Award Recipient, of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports. She has authored 250+ publications and technical reports in the fields of biomechanical modelling, wearable technologies, applied machine learning, injury prevention, and pro-public technology development.
Floriane Magera is an Innovation Engineer at EVS Broadcast Equipment. She has worked on a variety of projects related to using deep learning and advanced computer vision techniques for improving live production. She is also a PhD student at the University of Liège, where she is researching the automatic camera calibration of sports images using deep learning. She is part of SoccerNet, a scientific group maintaining datasets and organizing yearly competitions to stimulate research on sport image analysis.
John Hart is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sports Engineering Research Group based at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University. With specialisms in aerodynamics, design, and body morphology, he delivers contract research to the sport and healthcare sectors. This has a particular focus on optimisation of sporting equipment for performance, athlete safety and increased participation. His clients range from commercial sports equipment manufacturers through to elite sports and international governing bodies
