Innovation Lab

How can we use innovations to advance football during the coronavirus pandemic? The Football Innovation Platform (which consists of KNVB, UEFA, City Football Group, Johan Cruijff ArenA and Ajax) posed this question to all innovative companies worldwide. This challenge, named "Reimagine Football", resulted in 329 submissions from 38 different countries. The winners per theme were announced after the final pitching event.

Leading European football organizations, including UEFA, Royal Netherlands Football Association, City Football Group, AFC Ajax, and the Johan Cruijff ArenA, have joined forces to tackle the challenges this global pandemic brings for football.

Through Reimagine Football, we have challenged companies worldwide, ranging from start-ups to big corporates to come with smart innovations to reimagine football in the context of COVID-19: How to keep fans engaged while they cannot visit football stadiums, how to create a safe and engaging environment for fans, players and other personnel in the stadiums and how to enable youth and amateurs to keep playing and enjoying football.

The Football Innovation Platform is happy to announce that we have made a final selection of the most promising submissions in Reimagine Football.

Brand Finance has placed the Johan Cruijff ArenA in a beautiful 10th place in their annual VPR ranking, which ranks clubs’ facilities around the globe on a number of categories and criteria. The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium leads the league.

The Municipality of Amsterdam has selected the Johan Cruijff ArenA as a testing location for the coronavirus. Smart technology is being used to conduct research into how larger groups of people can gather at busy locations and public events. The municipality has set up test beds in and around event locations as part of a public-private partnership with TNO, the Johan Cruijff ArenA, the Rijksmuseum and theatre and musical producer Stage Entertainment.

KPMG and Johan Cruijff ArenA are expanding their collaboration with a new five-year commitment. The agreement is aimed, among others, at strengthening the ArenA in the further development of its innovation capability. In addition, KPMG and Johan Cruijff ArenA will develop innovation concepts in a field lab to make stadiums and cities worldwide smarter and more sustainable. For a number of years, Johan Cruijff ArenA has served as a successful living lab, where ideas and technologies are developed and tested together with partners such as the Municipality of Amsterdam. This has led to innovative smart stadium and smart city solutions in the areas of mobility, accessibility, crowd management, livability, inclusiveness and sustainability, but also in the field of security and digitalization.

Together with EBTC and commissioned by the Indian Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, the Johan Cruijff ArenA will be establishing a Living Lab for IIIT on the university campus in Hyderabad. This was announced during the trade mission, parallel to the state visit by King Willem-Alexander and Máxima of the Netherlands.

The Johan Cruijff ArenA and the KNVB, the Royal Dutch Football Association, are investigating whether the high-tech system that monitors the turf of the ArenA is suitable to serve as a basis for other clubs in Dutch professional football. The KNVB has already deployed the monitoring system on the training fields of the Dutch national team in Zeist. The smart turf monitoring system in the Johan Cruijff ArenA is unique in the world. With data produced by special sensors in the turf and measurements taken by the grass team, the system monitors the health and quality of the pitch 24/7. A dashboard shows the experts exactly when the turf needs feeding, light or water.

The Johan Cruijff ArenA, in collaboration with Ajax and the KNVB, is developing innovative new services for visitors. Smart innovations should enhance the visitor experience by, for instance, providing exclusive content for events, showing visitors the shortest lines in the stadium and pointing to the fastest route to a seat. The ArenA is challenging companies to register their innovative stadium solutions for selection in the ‘Change the Game’ program. The most appealing, state-of-the-art concepts will be tested in the ArenA and offered to visitors from 2019 onwards.