Raffaele POLI is the co-founder and director of the CIES Football Observatory. He holds a PhD in the human sciences from the Universities of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and Franche-Comté (France). As a scientific collaborator at CIES he is in charge of the Observatory’s general management, communication and strategic development.

Loïc RAVENEL is the co-founder of the CIES Football Observatory. A geographer by training, he is a scientific collaborator at CIES and a researcher in the ThéMA research centre (UMR CNRS 6049) of the University of Franche-Comté (Besançon, France). He is in charge of transposing to other sports the methodological solutions developed since 2005 in the field of football.

A geographer, Roger BESSON is a scientific collaborator at CIES. He is on the verge of finishing a PhD thesis at the Institute of Geography of the University of Neuchâtel. In the CIES Football Observatory, he is in charge of statistical developments related to predictions and player performance analysis. He is also responsible for the layout of our annual reports.

Andrea PESSINA is a FIFA Master alumnus with a deep knowledge of the football players’ labour market. This enabled him to join the CIES Football Observatory as a database manager. He is in charge of gathering all the relevant information on professional footballers present in the leagues covered. He also represents the Observatory at conferences as a speaker.

A cartographer, Armelle KAUFMANT-COUILLET works in the ThéMA research centre (UMR CNRS 6049) of the University of Franche-Comté (Besançon, France). In the CIES Football Observatory, she assists with map making for our annual reports. She is also developing solutions in the area of dynamic cartography to represent football players’ career paths.