Toulouse playing ‘Moneyball’ to survive in league

Paris: Operating with a small budget and no star player, Toulouse has found a way to survive in the French league.

It all started in July 2020 when American investment firm RedBird Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Toulouse and appointed Damien Comolli as president.

“We work with companies that provide us with data,” Comolli told the French league’s website, “and then we have statisticians, our own software, our own algorithms, which help us in all the decisions we make in the management of the club.”

The compilation and interpretation of data have helped Toulouse find value in a tough market. Toulouse has a budget of 40 million euros (USD 43 million) for this season compared to 700 million euros (USD 754 million) for French league leader Paris Saint-Germain and 250 million euros (USD 270 million) for Marseille. Only Auxerre, Clermont and Ajaccio have a smaller budget than Toulouse in the league.

Promoted last year, Toulouse exploits data not just to recruit players, improve performance, limit injuries and analyze opponents, but also to make decisions about financial matters like the transfer budget, payroll and contract extensions.

This “Moneyball” approach has contributed to Toulouse’s good season. The club is in in 12th place, 11 points above the relegation zone.

By contrast, the other promoted teams, Ajaccio and Auxerre, are in the relegation zone.

Written by Michael Lewis, the book Moneyball explores the success of the Oakland Athletics baseball team under general manager Billy Beane, showing how an emphasis on sabermetrics over more traditional methods helped them sign underrated players and outfox richer competitors.

A former aeronautical engineer, Toulouse head of data Julien Demeaux and his staff analyse more than 60 leagues around the world.

Toulouse also hired Brendan MacFarlane as head of recruitment in March 2021 to better assess things like technique and personality that are not picked up by

data.