As manager Danny Searle and his Aldershot Town FC players get ready for the up and coming 20-21 season in the English National League – they will be the first football team to get their player ID on their phone.
The move is intended to boost security around key locations and digitally transform outdated processes, waving goodbye to paper around the pitch and training ground. The players will use a simple scan using their phone to share their verified digital identity from Yoti while protecting their privacy.
Aldershot Town FC Chairman, Shahid Azeem, said “We’re focused on building a sustainable future for Aldershot Town FC, investing on and off the pitch to make it a great place for players, fans and our staff to enjoy the game and everything the club brings to the local community. We’re exploring how the latest identity technology from Yoti can streamline existing paper-based processes to make life easier, speed up and reduce admin as well as boost security. With so many of the day-to-day processes in football unchanged in decades, the potential for digital identities in football is limitless.”
With the free Yoti app, players create a digital ID that helps them prove who they are while protecting their privacy. It is built with data minimisation at the core and allows people to share less data. Yoti puts individuals in control to show only the details they need, to the businesses and people they trust. These details can range from their personal information such as name and DOB, through to work credentials, passes, Covid-19 health test results and more.
Yoti CEO Robin Tombs said “We love sport at Yoti, so I’m delighted to see Aldershot Town FC begin to explore the power of digital identities in transforming outdated processes around the training pitch and football ground. Whether it’s the club management, staff, players or fans, digital identities have the power to make everyday processes faster, simpler and safer.I look forward to seeing where this partnership goes.”
It’s hoped that Yoti can transform many areas for football clubs like Aldershot Town FC, with the potential for players and staff to sign contracts and more. Fans could also have their season ticket attached to their ID on their phone, giving them one less thing to remember on match days.
Finally, as sports fans and officials hope to return to some kind of normality with spectators in stadiums during the coronavirus pandemic, FRANKD with Yoti is a fast and accurate Covid-19 testing solution that takes under 30 minutes to deliver on site and can sees results automatically shared straight to the individuals mobile phone. This could be a powerful tool in the safe return to competitive sport as we know and love it.