Melbourne's AAMI Park to deploy facial recognition during A-League season

Facial recognition technology is to be introduced at Melbourne's AAMI Park for A-League fixtures this season.

The decision, resulting from a violent pitch invasion during a fixture between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City in December last year, will see AAMI Park join a growing number of Australian sporting venues using the crowd monitoring technology.

Melbourne Victory has advised that the technology would be rolled out ahead of the 2023/24 A-Leagues season to identify people banned from entering the stadium, as well as being used to monitor those who otherwise pose a security threat.

Explaining the introduction of the facial recognition technology, Melbourne Victory Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie advised "we have had an enormous amount of feedback from our members and fans around stadium security measures and how we can ensure a safe environment for everyone to enjoy our games.

"As a club, we are pleased that AAMI Park will have improved security measures in place this season."

A statement from Melbourne Victory noted that AAMI Park's conditions of entry were updated to reflect the use of facial recognition.

As of Thursday, the venue's conditions of entry stated the venue and the Melbourne and Olympic Parks precinct - includes AAMI Park along with Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, John Cain Arena, Centrepiece and Kia Arena - is now fitted with electronic surveillance including facial recognition technology.

It added that Victoria Police or authorised officers would eject banned people from AAMI Park if they were detected through the facial recognition technology.

Consumer advocacy organisation Choice in July this year said several Australian stadiums were using facial recognition including the Sydney Cricket Ground, Allianz Stadium, Melbourne Cricket Ground and Qudos Bank Arena.

The December pitch invasion saga saw crowd restrictions imposed by Football Australia on Melbourne Victory and the club incur $550,000.

Three dozen people were charged after a public campaign to identify the pitch invaders, and Football Australia doled out bans including five-year, 20-year and lifetime prohibitions to some of those involved.

Images: AAMI Park (top, credit: Visit Melbourne) and Melbourne Victory fans invade the pitch during last December's A-League clash with and Melbourne City (below).