On 2 March, the 2026 edition of the Sports Tomorrow Congress will begin in Barcelona, the sports innovation congress promoted by the Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB) that brings together experts in R+D and technology from around the world to debate the future of sport in those areas.

The congress this year will include speeches by president Rafael Yuste, women's first team coach Pere Romeu, and Barça Atlètic coach Juliano Belletti. Other executives from different Club departments will also feature on stage, such as the BIHUB medical department head Gil Rodas, first-team doctor Lucas Gómez, FC Barcelona physiotherapy and rehabilitation department head Xavier Linde, FC Barcelona sports nutrition head Mireia Porta, BIHIB director Albert Mundet, and FC Barcelona sponsorship director Marc Bruix.

The Sports Tomorrow Congress will also see international speakers such as the Liverpool FC sports performance head Jack Ade, the PSG sports innovation projects head Ben Simpson, and Club Brugge innovation director Thomas Rypens.

There will also be sessions run by the director for research and development for the Bimbo Group in the EMEA Irene Mínguez and by the head of mental performance at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre York-Peter Klöppel, as well as speeches by the heads of several start-ups invested in by BIHUB, including Omniscope, Made of Genes, Scircle, Adspective and Onalabs.

The slogan for this edition of the Sports Tomorrow Congress is “Tech your Edge” and it will open the door to discussing how technology becomes a key tool for expanding the unique nature of each sporting institution, both in the way their sporting model is built and how their business develops. An approach that will use the example of FC Barcelona as a starting point, a club with over a hundred years of history that combines identity, tradition and legacy with an ongoing ​commitment to innovation and transformation.

Within the framework of the Mobile World Congress

The event will take place within the framework of the MWC Barcelona for a fourth consecutive year, the world's biggest connectivity event held annually in Barcelona. It has been made possible again for another year due to the strategic alliance established between FC Barcelona and GSMA, a global organisation that brings together the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and offer the essential innovation for positive business environments and social change.

The BIHUB will also have a stand in 4FYN, a space to showcase and drive start-ups in this international event. As such, the start-ups BIHUB have invested in will have a new platform to introduce their projects to a global audience. At the same time, BIHUB also collaborates with GSMA Foundry, the GSMA innovation arm, in order to work together on projects in this domain from now on.

'Hackaton' proving popular, with over 3,200 registered

Something new this year sees BIHUB forming part of the 'Hackaton' of the MWC Talent Arena, an event designed for data analysis professionals in which participants will have to solve a challenge involving sports performance metrics generated from FC Barcelona matches; it will be called “More than a Hack”.

The initiative has proved popular, with over 3,200 registrations from more than 95 different countries, from which 12 groups of five people have been selected to participate in the final phase of the data analysis challenge that will take place on 3 March.

Força Barça