The Union of European Football Associations (U E FA) has signed an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 8th to monitor fan crowds near stadiums.

The news was announced in Lausanne, Switzerland and will last through the end of 2025. The goal is to use satellite data provided by ESA to identify places where crowds gather on match days, giving support to the necessary actions to avoid trouble and provide safety for fans, for example.

“Satellites can help monitor crowds from space and identify when crowds are building up at bottlenecks in the flow of people around football stadiums,” stated ESA in an announcement. “It is part of a wider effort to use space for football fans that will not only use real-time data to keep supporters safe, but also use historical satellite data to support the planning of events,” continued the announcement.

Additionally, according to the ESA and UEFA, this will allow them to understand the effect of stadiums on the day-to-day of the surrounding areas, and how to alleviate their impact on those places.

Glossary

Satellites: bodies that orbit around the Earth. They can be natural, like the moon, or artificial, such as equipment sent to space to transmit data (for example: television, telephone, and planet observation signals).

Sources: ESA, Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Gazeta Esportiva, and UEFA.

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