Organized by FootEx, Powered by Comparisonator and Supported by The Book of Scouting, Football Conference Istanbul will take place on 26–27 September 2026 at Fairmont Quasar Istanbul | Luna Ballroom, bringing together leading professionals from across international football.
Under the theme BEYOND 90 MINUTES, the conference will explore the decisions, technologies and structures shaping modern football.
Scouting has always relied on human judgement. Today, scouts and recruitment departments also work with data, video and artificial intelligence.
So how should these tools come together?
From Intuition to Intelligence: AI, Data and the Future of Scouting
27 September | 11:00–11:45 | Session 5
Live scouting provides context that numbers alone cannot. Data helps clubs analyse players at scale, while video and artificial intelligence add new layers to the evaluation process. But where should the balance lie?
How much should clubs rely on data? Where does human judgement remain essential? And how can AI support scouting without replacing the experience of the scout?
This session brings together perspectives from professional scouting, football intelligence and artificial intelligence to explore how modern recruitment is moving towards a more integrated, evidence-based approach.
Tarkan Batgun — CEO, Comparisonator | Author, The Book of Scouting
Tarkan Batgun is CEO of Comparisonator and author of The Book of Scouting – Volume One: From Intuition to Evidence. His work focuses on the intersection of football scouting, recruitment, data and artificial intelligence.
Through Comparisonator, he works with professional football organisations around the world to support player evaluation and transfer decision-making. His 500+ page book brings together perspectives from Sporting Directors, Chief Scouts, coaches, agents, analysts and executives to examine how human judgement, live scouting, video, data and AI can work together in modern recruitment.
Fernando Matos — Chief Scout, FC Famalicão
Fernando Matos is Chief Scout at FC Famalicão and an experienced scouting and recruitment professional with extensive experience in player identification, recruitment strategy and talent evaluation across international markets.
Matos is also a contributor to The Book of Scouting – Volume One, sharing his perspective on recruitment philosophy, scouting structures and the importance of continuously reviewing and challenging initial conclusions when evaluating players.
Moderated by Furkan Yagiz
The session will be moderated by Furkan Yagiz — COO of Comparisonator. Working within a football intelligence company operating across international markets, Yagiz brings a perspective on how technology, data and artificial intelligence are being developed and applied within professional football decision-making.
Together, the panel will examine how the role of the scout is changing as new sources of information become part of the recruitment process.
The future of scouting may not be a choice between human intuition and technology.
Instead, the challenge is understanding how experience, observation, data and artificial intelligence can strengthen one another.
That conversation continues From Intuition to Intelligence.
Football Conference Istanbul by FootEx
26–27 September 2026
Fairmont Quasar Istanbul | Luna Ballroom
BEYOND 90 MINUTES
