Before smart technology can be effectively deployed in football stadiums to combat racism and discrimination, several hurdles must still be overcome. Based on observations during the product development phase of the Smart Technology Challenge in Dutch professional football and current scientific insights, the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT) has established ten criteria. These criteria are aimed at ensuring that digital systems in stadiums do not miss their intended purpose.
Players, staff, and visitors of football clubs in Dutch stadiums have regulary faced racism and discrimination during matches, including chants, insults, and intimidation. Under the banner of Ons Voetbal Is Van Iedereen (Our football belongs to everyone), since 2019, the KNVB (Royal Netherlands Football Association), Eredivisie (Dutch premier league), Keuken Kampioen Divisie (first league), and the Dutch government have been exploring suitable measures to tackle this issue, including the use of smart technology.
With the idea that smart technology could contribute to an adequate response to misconduct, or even help prevent it in some cases, the Smart Technology Challenge was launched. Four consortia of stadiums, technology companies, and football clubs PEC Zwolle, PSV, and Feyenoord explored the use of electronic pre-registration of match attendees as well as the detection of problematic behavior using smart audio and visual detection systems.
Risks
Due to the ethical and legal risks associated with these systems, TILT was asked to provide advisory support. How do you prevent unnecessary violations of supporters’ privacy? How do you ensure that digital technology itself does not engage in discriminatory practices? And what exactly qualifies as ’racist’ behavior?
TILT identified several bottlenecks. For instance, supporters were only involved sparingly in the product development, and there was insufficient clarity about which behaviors would be classified as undesirable. However, there were also successes. Testing showed that smart technology made it possible to respond more quickly to incidents. With the right approach, collaboration with supporters was indeed feasible.
Based on these and other reflections, TILT’s report outlines 10 general legal, ethical, and organizational criteria for the application of smart technologies in stadiums and similar environments:
- Ensure effective systems : Before developing a system, always investigate whether the expected benefits justify the investment. What exactly do you want to achieve, what is the added value of the technology, and can the same effect be achieved with less invasive measures?
- Invest in public support : Protecting supporters, players, and staff requires an open dialogue with all parties. This reduces the risk of undermining the technology and fosters the necessary dialogue between different groups of supporters.
- Ensure a legal basis : Legal guarantees are desirable for public support and are required under GDPR and the AI Act. Processing personal data based on consent is unsuitable in such situations.
- Monitor the alignment between goals and means : Various means, such as increasing insight into who is present in the stadium, recognizing chants, disrupting chants, and fostering positive fan engagement, were proposed as possible solutions. However, how these help combat racism and discrimination was not always clear, risking that technology might become an end in itself.
- Continually invest in strong collaborative relationships : Many parties are involved in football matches. An open culture, where constructive and critical feedback is the norm, is essential for responsibly exchanging data and having a constructive debate.
- Ensure proper technical and organizational integration : Proper integration is essential for effectiveness and thus for the legitimacy of a system. This also supports public acceptance. Existing and future legal frameworks, such as the AI Act, impose requirements that must be taken into account, especially for high-risk systems.
- Focus on minimal and appropriate data processing : When the goal of smart systems is to recognize and avoid discrimination or racism, it is crucial to invest in clear standards, such as good definitions; otherwise, qualitative and well-defined data collection becomes impossible.
- Avoid and prevent bias in technological assistance : Bias or discrimination by technology is a realistic risk with existing systems and technologies. If this is a consequence of the technological design, such a system cannot be used ’correctly’, and alternative methods must be developed.
- Avoid chilling effects and unlawful nudging : When people know they are being monitored, they may hesitate to express themselves (chilling effect). This could also affect groups that are already victims of discrimination. Caution is also needed with nudging, such as poorly founded or discriminatory assumptions about behavior and appearance.
- Ensure human control and visitor autonomy : Human oversight over systems and the decisions they help make is a legal and ethical requirement. This requires well-informed staff and visitors, who are thus able to challenge decisions, for example.
In follow-up pilots two pillars are now being emphasized: knowing who is in the stadium through Identity Based Access or digital pre-registration, and recording and capturing audio and video, possibly combined with digital pre-registration. These technologies will continue to be tested in various stadiums until 2025.
