Brentford receive £3.23m public money windfall for R&D in football with academic papers written on training and positional play.
Brentford football club have received £3.23m in public money for research they have commissioned into sports science, medicine, etc.
Businesses are eligible to receive 20% of the expenditures of a research project back under the provisions of the research and development (R&D) tax credit scheme, provided that the findings of the study are made publicly available and “create an advance in the overall field.”
Over the last two years, Brentford has invested over £16 million in their research department, which has resulted in the publication of numerous scholarly articles on a variety of topics, such as positional play, running intensity, and training loads. Thomas Frank, the head coach, has used the outcomes. His team is known for their high level of intensity and enthusiasm.
The club earned a £3.23 million tax credit last year, according to a statement in Brentford’s 2023–24 accounts released this week. However, it has been informed that a portion of the payout was backdated for a claim made the year before.
Established in 2013 to encourage companies to innovate in science and technology for the benefit of the public, the R&D tax credit system has generated a lot of criticism due to its soaring costs, which, according to the most recent data, have increased from an initial £1.1 billion to £7.5 billion annually.
Earlier this week, the Times revealed that Chelsea had claimed £2 million in R&D tax credits between 2020 and 2023, while Nottingham Forest had claimed £607,000 last year. Both teams declined to comment on the initiatives for which the funds were given.
According to insiders at the club, Brentford has been more forthcoming, citing a number of study papers that have been published in scholarly journals throughout the last two years. Each year, roughly six PhD students are hired by the club to undertake research; the findings are then published and shared with the football department.
Frank is also very interested in the work, which has been co-authored by the performance director, Ben Ryan, a former rugby player who led Fiji’s sevens squad to gold at the 2016 Olympics.
Recent publications include a study on how match location affects players’ high-intensity running speed, a comparison of the positional demands of the Premier League and France’s Ligue 1, and other similar works looking at high-speed running and sprinting based on the quality of the opposition.
“Our research programme has been developed in collaboration with leading academic institutions involving our team of PhD researchers within the club,” a Brentford spokesperson told the Guardian. “These projects, many of which are published in peer-reviewed journals, are making new contributions to the fields of sports science, medicine, biology and athletic performance.”