The future of the sports industry is driven by the vision, energy, and skills of the next generation. On 10 November, inside Turin's Allianz Stadium, the Innovation Stage will host the final phase of the Gen Z Challenge, the student competition promoted under the ExtraTime program at SFS, organized by Theorema and Social Media Soccer.
The initiative reaches its climax following a comprehensive journey that engaged seventy-three students and gathered twenty-five innovative projects. Taking the stage will be eight finalist teams representing six leading Italian universities and one ITS Academy: the University of Bologna, the University of Turin, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the University of Genoa, Sapienza University of Rome, Politecnico di Milano, and ITS Academy Turismo Piemonte. The selected proposals tackle strategic priorities across the sports ecosystem, ranging from athletic performance monitoring and social inclusion to youth dropout prevention, athlete financial literacy, and stadium accessibility.
The lineup of competing solutions reflects an exceptional diversity of technical and strategic innovation. The University of Bologna presents AthleteLoad, a system engineered alongside a Serie A2 basketball club to track training workloads. The University of Turin features two finalist projects: Bolliti – Referee Lab, designed to combat violence against match officials, and Pitch Sense, offering technological solutions to make stadiums fully accessible for fans with sensory disabilities or neurodivergence. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore introduces KYP – Keep Your Promises, a financial education program tailored to guide and safeguard young athletes.
The University of Genoa competes with NeuroMAP, a platform enabling long-term tracking of movement data across different wearable devices. ITS Academy Turismo Piemonte contributes OFFSIDE IN, a project dedicated to developing off-pitch life skills for young footballers. Sapienza University of Rome showcases Resta in Gioco, a software application assisting sports clubs in preventing youth sport abandonment. Lastly, Politecnico di Milano presents Sensia, a solution utilizing wearable metrics to evaluate athlete stress and focus levels.
Evaluating the pitches will be an expert jury of four accomplished female leaders spanning innovation, corporate governance, and venture development: Valeria Satta, Quality Control Manager at Primaidea Srl; Samia Rinaldi, Governance Officer at Little Genius International; Gaia Manzone, Founder & CEO of BAB | Breaking All Barriers; and Elena Nanni, Coordinator at Murate Idea Park. The session on the Innovation Stage promises to serve as a vital bridge between emerging Gen Z talent and the established leadership of the global football industry.