This article summarises Chapter 9 of Football 2016–2026: The Decade that Rewrote the Rules, the World Football Summit report marking ten years of structural change across the global football industry. Download the full chapter free at worldfootballsummit.com. In the early 2010s, elite football operated almost entirely on unverified impressions. A coach gauged player fatigue by sight, a medical department relied on basic clinical exams, and scouts traveled for days to judge a prospect over a single ninety-minute match. When Ajax launched one of European football’s first dedicated sports science departments in 2011, its own staff acknowledged the work was purely reactive—data was collected,