FC Sochi Manager Sacked After ‘Using ChatGPT To Plan Tactics & Training Sessions’
Former Spain head coach Roberto Moreno was sacked from this latest gig at FC Sochi in Russia after allegedly using ChatGPT to plan tactics and training sessions
Moreno, 48, joined the club in 2023, and got them relegated in May 2024 after he managed to pick up just 1 point in seven games.
This led to Moreno being sacked, with the club’s sporting director Andrei Orlov now stating that the Spaniard’s exit was down to his over-reliance on ChatGPT, which he used to work out the logistics for away games, training regimes, on-field tactics and transfer strategies.
Apparently he used ChatGPT to create a schedule for the Sochi players ahead of an away game in Khabarovsk, which led to players staying awake for 28 consecutive hours. Additionally, players were told to attend a training session at 7am two days before the match.
Orlov told Sports Russia in an interview: “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.’
“I looked at the presentation: it showed that the players weren’t supposed to sleep for 28 hours. I asked, ‘Robert, that’s all great, but when are the guys going to sleep?’
“[The players] didn’t understand why we had to wake up at five in the morning and train at seven. We had Oleg Kozhemyakin on our team, who had played a year for SKA (Khabarovsk) just before Sochi.
“Moreno didn’t even consult with him. In the end, we followed the schedule created by ChatGPT.”
According to Orlov, ChatGPT even made the final call on which new striker would be signed to Sochi last summer.
Orlov claimed: “Moreno entered the data of Pisarsky, Meleshin, and Shushenachev from Wyscout into ChatGPT. Shushenachev emerged as the best, according to GPT.”
For what it’s worth, Moreno has strongly denied the claims.
He said in a statement: “I have never used ChatGPT (or any AI) to prepare for matches, decide lineups, or choose players. Like any professional coaching staff, we use analysis tools (video, data, scouting) to organize information, but the sporting and human decisions are always made by the coach and his staff.
“A chat doesn’t prepare my matches or choose players. In modern football, we use analytical tools (video, data, and scouting platforms), but the sporting decisions—who plays, how we train, and what profiles we need—are always made by the coaching staff with professional judgment. Regarding the aforementioned striker: presenting him as an ‘algorithm choice’ isn’t accurate.
“His signing was a club process, led by the Sporting Director and validated by the coach; furthermore, he scored in the Cup and had a period of injury that affected his continuity, as happens in any team.
“From Sochi, I take away the work and the lessons learned. I’m not going to get into arguments with people from the past.”
Maybe he asked ChatGPT how to get sacked so he could get a nice little payout from the club? May as well have to be fair. I just don’t understand how he uncritically accepted all the suggestions ChatGPT threw at him. Any ChatGPT afficionado knows that the chatbot doesn’t always get things right, so it’s pretty wild to think that Moreno implemented the suggestions for sleep deprivation without any pushback.
He could have pointed this out to ChatGPT and got one of its classic, patronising, sycophantic responses:
“Oops, you’re right! That’s a very poignant observation. I didn’t account for player sleep. If you’d like, I can provide a shorter, more player welfare-focused version of the travel itinerary?”
Who knows? With enough sleep maybe the players would have survived relegation and Moreno would still be in a job. Even with ChatGPT at your disposal, a little common sense is necessary.
For the teenager who died of an overdose after using ChatGPT as his ‘drug buddy’, click HERE.
