Soccer

Populous is putting an aeronautical spin on a soccer stadium with a €100 million renovation of the Stade de la Meinau. It will boost capacity, improve sustainability and incorporate old airplane fuselages for shading.

Zaha Hadid Architects has been commissioned to create a new soccer stadium in China. The striking curved building is designed to mitigate the effects of the weather and will feature a significant amount of greenery integrated into its facades.

Construction is complete on a new stadium in Qatar. Created for the country's 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, it features a complex facade that's said to shimmer in sunlight and can also be illuminated with integrated lighting at night.

Foosball tables are a common sight at hip, trendy tech startups, even though they're actually very low-tech devices. Perhaps RoboSoccer might be more appropriate, as it's an attempt to bridge the gap between physical and digital gaming.

​A couple of years ago, we first heard about a neck band designed to protect athletes from concussions by essentially making their brains bigger. Now, a new study indicates that it does indeed work, protecting wearers against damage caused by smaller hits along with the big ones.

​Nissan’s Propilot technology is at the heart of its self-driving efforts, but for its latest demo it is working on a much smaller scale. Over the weekend, the company unveiled a roving robot that uses the autonomous driving technology to draw up different soccer pitches to exact dimensions.

​We've already seen "smart" soccer balls with integrated sensors that track parameters such as the ball's spin and trajectory. Well, the DribbleUp takes a different approach to smart training. It has markings that allow it to be tracked by a free iOS/Android app.

VFL Wolfsburg is to become the first German soccer team to have LED pitch lighting installed at its stadium. Philips, which is providing the lighting, says it will deliver a better quality of light at the Volkswagen Arena, allowing for improved TV coverage of games.

Building soccer pitches isn't typically a priority in London's limited space, so architect AL_A has devised a way to make the most of the spaces that are available. Its Pitch/Pitch concept can fit multiple five-a-side soccer pitches on small disused plots by stacking them on top of each other.

Forest Green Rovers may only play in the 5th tier of the UK's soccer pyramid, but the team will soon have facilities up there with the very best. It has appointed Zaha Hadid Architects to construct a low-carbon stadium made almost entirely of sustainably-sourced wood.

Spanish soccer club Atletico Madrid is preparing to move into a 67,000-seat stadium next season, where the playing arena will be the first in the world to be illuminated by Philips' so-called ArenaExperience. ​

Zepp Play Soccer is a small sensor worn on the calf to keep tabs on things like kicks, sprints and distance covered, and can even compile a highlights package for your own post-game analysis.