Denmark mandates facial recognition to keep violent fans out of football stadiums

The Danish government has announced the implementation of legislative reforms which will include the mandatory deployment of facial recognition systems to address fan violence at some football venues across the country.

This is part of a 14-point legislative amendment proposal announced recently by the country’s Minister of Justice, Peter Hummelgaard, The Copenhagen Post reports.

Beyond the use of expanded automated facial recognition to identify violent fans, the proposal outlines other measures, including stricter penalties for perpetrators of stadium violence and quarantine powers to restrict individuals from attending matches, as well as targeted bans on hooligans from match venues.

According to the proposal, the introduction of facial recognition in the Danish Superliga, the country’s football top flight, will serve the purpose of identifying and preventing banned individuals from accessing football games.

Fan violence is said to be a major problem in Danish football, with recurrent reports of violence and other criminal behaviour, such as clashes between supporters.

Clubs like FC Copenhagen and Brondby IF have already received the green light to deploy facial recognition systems to identify violent football fans and supporters. Last year, authorities placed an indefinite ban on away fans for matches involving these two clubs, as reported by Reuters.

The government says it will work in collaboration with football clubs and the Danish Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) to enforce the new rules once they get the procedural approval, according to the report. The Authority has, however, insisted on data privacy and security safeguards.

This is Denmark’s second legislative package to fight hooliganism in football within three years, writes Politiken.

The deployment of biometrics to streamline attendance and check violence is a growing tendency in sports, especially football. In Italy and Spain, for instance, face biometrics systems are deployed in collaboration with clubs and league authorities.

This notwithstanding, there have been concerns about data privacy and security, with some clubs fined over data handling shortfalls.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Denmark  |  facial recognition  |  legislation  |  video surveillance