Robert Moreno sacked from FC Sochi after reliance on AI
Former Spain national team manager Robert Moreno has been dismissed from Russian First League side FC Sochi following revelations that he relied extensively on artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to guide his coaching decisions, reports BritPanorama.
The 48-year-old departed the club last September after accumulating a solitary point from seven fixtures. Andrei Orlov, who previously served as Sochi’s sporting director, disclosed that Moreno developed an unusual dependence on the AI platform, which influenced several of his coaching decisions.
Moreno’s tenure was marked by peculiar training regimes and transfer strategies based on ChatGPT’s recommendations. One notable incident occurred during an away fixture in Khabarovsk, where he insisted on adhering strictly to ChatGPT’s travel itinerary, requiring players to remain awake for 28 consecutive hours and attend a training session at 7am two days prior to the match.
“When we were preparing for a trip to Khabarovsk, Robert said, ‘I’ve got it all figured out. I’ve set up all the trip parameters in ChatGPT,'” Orlov told Sports Russia. This approach raised concerns, especially when local expertise, such as that of teammate Oleg Kozhemyakin, was disregarded.
Moreno’s reliance on AI extended to recruitment decisions during the summer transfer window. In evaluating new forwards, he input data on Vladimir Pisarsky, Pavel Meleshin, and Artur Shushenachev into ChatGPT. Despite the AI recommending Shushenachev as the best option, he failed to score in any of his ten games for Sochi.
Orlov acknowledged that while using technology as a supplemental resource could be reasonable, Moreno’s increasing reliance on it became problematic. “An additional tool—why not? But for Moreno, GPT eventually became one of his primary tools,” he noted.
Discontent spread throughout the squad as Moreno’s unconventional methods took their toll. Orlov revealed that both Russian players and foreign recruits were losing faith in their manager. “Towards the end, the Russian core was very unhappy with Moreno, and the foreigners weren’t so confident in his ideas either,” he said.
Supporters also grew frustrated with Moreno’s rigid possession-based approach, which offered little attacking threat, alongside a lack of attention to set-piece preparation during training sessions. Prior to his Sochi stint, he had managed Spain for nine matches, securing seven victories and two draws before stepping aside ahead of Euro 2020.
This saga serves as a striking reminder of the challenges and dependencies modern managers face in an era when technology is often seen as a magic bullet. It raises questions about the balance between embracing innovation and maintaining the essential human touch that defines coaching. In football, intuition and experience remain invaluable, even as algorithms increasingly shape decision-making.
