De Siervo: “We will have facial scanners in stadiums by the end of the season”

Serie A chief Luigi De Servio confirmed that stadiums will have facial scanners by the end of the season to help identify those who racially abuse players. The league came under further criticism following the racist abuse levelled at Mike Maignan in Milan’s 3-2 win over Udinese. Speaking with il Corriere della Sera after the Maignan case, De Serviospoke about the possibility of introducing facial scanners at the entrances to stadiums to be able to more easily identify those who are the protagonists of vulgar acts of a racist and non-racial nature:

“The plan is to equip the stadiums of all the teams registered in Serie A with video surveillance systems capable of scanning the faces of those entering the stadium at the entrance, associating them with their personal data present in the nominal tickets , so as to immediately trace the identity of the fans .”

“Despite the economic crisis resulting from Covid, the lack of willingness of footballers to even partially reduce their salaries, I hope that we will be able to invest in this technology”.

“The costs are significant, but the hope is to be able to approve the project by the end of this season.”