Visa, FIFA, PopID bring face biometrics payment to the World Cup

Visa has partnered with FIFA and PopID to deliver contactless biometric payments at official World Cup venues including eight stadiums and the FIFA Fan Festival.

Visa says it has installed 5,300 contactless payment terminals for the 1 million fans expected to travel to Qatar for the tournament.

Contactless payments are available for taxi passengers through a partnership between Visa and Qatar’s Transport Ministry.

This also will be the first time face biometrics will be used for payments in Qatar. It is being piloted at three Flat White Specialty Coffee cafes.

The face recognition setup is a collaboration between Qatar National Bank (QNB) and PopID and is supported by Visa through tokenization.

Visa and PopID have already partnered on biometric applications in the Middle East. Building on that collaboration, the companies are enabling fans attending the World Cup to enroll in the system and pay using their faces alone.

This deployment could be influential in a region that, according to technology publisher Insider Intelligence, prefers to use cash in consumer transactions more than does any other region globally.

“As FIFA’s long-standing partner, Visa wants to give football fans from around the world the best way to pay in Qatar while experiencing exciting new innovations such as the fusion of art, football and technology at Visa’s Masters of Movement venue,” comments Saeeda Jaffar, senior VP and Gulf Country Cooperation region manager at Visa.

“With thousands of contactless payment terminals, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 promises to be the most payment-enabled FIFA tournament ever for the more than one million fans coming to enjoy the magic of football.”

Visa had brought contactless biometric payments for the Olympic Games in Beijing and, most recently, Tokyo. It is unclear at the time if the events shared the same systems.

Biometric Update has contacted the company and will update this story as needed.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  face biometrics  |  payments  |  PopID  |  Qatar  |  Visa  |  World Cup