Football 2023: Why the A-League could introduce facial recognition at a stadium near you

There are also unresolved questions about how spectator bans can be enforced at lower-tier facilities for women's, youth, state league or other grassroots matches, where the security presence is greatly reduced in comparison to the stadiums where the full-time professionals play. FA chief executive James Johnson admitted on Tuesday that stadium bans were "complex" but not impossible to implement, and required close collaboration and information sharing between sporting bodies, security and police to allow those manning stadium entry points to identify banned supporters. Victoria Police say the enforcement of stadium bans is a matter for host clubs and venues.Credit:Getty Images According to industry sources, however, the system is imperfect and, in many ways, archaic, heavily reliant on the memories of security staff and their ability to quickly match patrons with photos, names or other data related to people on banned lists. Inevitably, some slip through the net, and often they are the ones who can cause trouble at a sporting event. One obvious but highly controversial and almost dystopian solution appears to be gaining traction in Australia and throughout the world: facial recognition technology, which was rolled out in cameras throughout the SCG precinct in 2018 and has been in place at Sydney's major stadia ever since.