Dutch FA turn to tech to keep hooligans away

The Hague - The Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) aims to use digital fingerprints and global positioning systems to keep hooligans away from football grounds.

"The idea is that people who are banned from stadiums should have to identify themselves with their fingerprint on a telephone that uses GPS before, during and after the match," KNVB spokesman Hans van Kastel told AFP.

That way authorities can know that banned hooligans are not in grounds.

The idea has been tested over a period of a year using "several dozen" people as volunteers and Van Kastel said the KNVB are now in discussions with the government in the hope of making the scheme obligatory for all those slapped with banning orders.

More than 1,300 people in the Netherlands are currently banned from entering stadiums, with 890 of those bans being issued in 2015 alone.

But hundreds of those supporters are regularly able to find a way around the bans -- ADO Den Haag are the only club in the Dutch league equipped with a biometric verification system for identifying hooligans.

"We are not an airport and we can't control everybody. Coming to the stadium has to remain a pleasant thing to do," Van Kastel added.