Teaching Football's Future to the Next Generation

Something is happening in Africa. The Gates Foundation and OpenAI recently launched a $50 million initiative to deploy AI tools across a thousand primary healthcare clinics in sub-Saharan Africa. The Gates Foundation has also committed $40 million to AI-powered education across the continent. Speaking in Kigali, Bill Gates argued that Africa could lead the way in AI, pointing to its young, growing tech communities as the reason why. The investment is real, and it is going where the talent is.

Football is part of the same story. African clubs are investing, AFCON has never drawn more global attention, and data is increasingly part of how the game is being built — not just watched. The tools that help teams scout smarter, coach better, and understand the game more deeply are arriving on the continent, and the question now is who gets to shape how they're used.

At Twelve, teaching people how to do that is a big part of what we're here for. Soccermatics Pro, developed and taught by Professor David Sumpter and the Twelve team, has done exactly that for the past five years. It breaks down the maths behind modern football in a way that's practical, hands-on, and accessible — whether you work in the game or you're just hungry to learn.

The talent is there. The gap is access. Twelve and Because She Can wanted to play a part in closing it.

Because She Can (BSC) is a Ghana-based organization that has spent five years building Africa's biggest pipeline of women in technology. Through mentorship programs, fellowships, and direct industry connections, they have grown a community of ambitious, technically capable women ready for this kind of opportunity.

"The intention is to give study and work opportunities to women and girls in the space of tech," says Otema Yirenkyi, Co-Founder of Because She Can. "Introducing them to Soccermatics is one of the ways in which we broaden their knowledge in new spaces."

For Twelve, the partnership was a chance to do what their courses were always designed to do: put powerful knowledge in the hands of people who will use it well.

The BSC students enrolled in Soccermatics Pro alongside analysts from clubs around the world — same content, same standard, same expectations. The course covers the data-driven principles that underpin modern football analysis, from player performance to tactical patterns.

For Sumpter, getting this course in front of the BSC community was the whole point. "Football analytics is a young field and it needs the best people coming into it. BSC has built something remarkable — a community of driven, talented women who are ready to work at the cutting edge. Bringing Soccermatics to them felt obvious."

Students found themselves building analytics apps, working with tracking data, and decoding tactical patterns in Python. Some were coming to football data for the first time. The projects got harder as the weeks went on, but so did the confidence.

The collaboration didn't stop at the course. Twelve and BSC are continuing with more courses to come, building a longer-term pathway into football analytics. For students who want to take the next step, there's a real opportunity to move from coursework into real projects — with Twelve or with others in the football data industry looking for exactly this kind of talent.

BSC celebrated its fifth anniversary the same year this cohort completed Soccermatics Pro. The partnership with Twelve adds a new dimension to that work — and connects it directly to the growth of football on the continent. From healthcare to education to the pitch, the pattern is the same: the talent was always there. The work now is making sure the tools, the access, and the education are too.

Football is a global game. The people who understand it through data should reflect that.