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 for two days of discussions around scouting, recruitment, transfers, sporting management, data and artificial intelligence.
Under the theme BEYOND 90 MINUTES, the conference will feature club Presidents, Sporting Directors, Chief Scouts, recruitment specialists and football executives sharing their experience and perspectives from inside the professional game.
One of the opening sessions will take the audience directly inside one of football’s most important processes: how elite clubs actually identify and evaluate players before making a transfer decision.
Inside the Recruitment Room: How Elite Clubs Really Identify Players
26 September | 10:30–11:15 | Session 1
Thousands of players may be available to a recruitment department, but only a small number will ever become serious transfer targets.
How does that process work? How are players initially identified? What roles do live scouting, video, data and recruitment analysis play? How are different opinions brought together and what ultimately gives a club enough confidence to move forward with a player?
Three professionals working directly inside elite recruitment will explore these questions from different perspectives.
Riccardo Polacco — Chief Scout, Olympique de Marseille
Riccardo Polacco is an experienced professional in international scouting, recruitment and player evaluation. His approach combines traditional football observation with data and modern analytical methods to support recruitment decisions. Polacco is also a contributor to The Book of Scouting – Volume One, where he shares his perspective on the evolution of modern scouting.
Fernando Matos — Chief Scout, FC Famalicão
Fernando Matos brings extensive experience in player identification, recruitment strategy and international talent evaluation. Also a contributor to The Book of Scouting – Volume One, Matos shares his experience around recruitment philosophy, scouting structures and the importance of continually challenging initial conclusions when evaluating players.
Besim Ali — Head of Recruitment Analysis, Liverpool FC
Working within Liverpool FC’s recruitment structure, Besim Ali specialises in recruitment analysis and the evaluation of potential transfer targets. His work represents the increasingly important connection between traditional scouting, video, performance information and data, helping transform large amounts of player information into relevant football intelligence for recruitment decisions.
Moderated by Tarkan Batgun
The session will be moderated by Tarkan Batgun — CEO of Comparisonator and Author of The Book of Scouting – Volume One: From Intuition to Evidence.
Bringing together perspectives from Liverpool FC, Olympique de Marseille and FC Famalicão, the session will offer a rare opportunity to hear directly from professionals involved in identifying, analysing and recommending players within modern recruitment structures.
How does a player go from one name among thousands to someone a club is genuinely prepared to sign?
That conversation begins Inside the Recruitment Room.
Football Conference Istanbul by FootEx
26–27 September 2026
Fairmont Quasar Istanbul | Luna Ballroom
BEYOND 90 MINUTES
