Almost 75,000 people converge on Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium when it is at capacity, while a similar number of fans follow the action live at Bayern Munich’s home ground of the Allianz Arena.

Keeping crowds safe is a long-standing challenge for civil authorities aided by football clubs.

Satellites can help monitor crowds from space and identify when crowds are building up at bottlenecks in the flow of people around football stadiums. When relayed to police forces, this information can enable commanding officers to take informed decisions. Similarly telecommunications satellites can support overloaded terrestrial communications networks when crowds gather to watch matches and navigation satellites can track people in real time.

The partnership, announced today at the Spot – a conference dedicated to innovation in sport that is being held on 8 and 9 May in Lausanne, Switzerland – aims to support the introduction of space-based innovation in professional football competitions.

It is part of a wider effort to use space for football fans that will not only use real-time data to keep supporters safe, but also use historical satellite data to support the planning of events.

UEFA – the Union of European Football Associations and the governing body of football in Europe – will also explore with ESA how to use space data to identify the benefits that hosting a football stadium can bring to its local community. The project aims to combine satellite images with socio-economic data and other information such as weather and irrigation to identify the effects of the presence of a football pitch to the local communities and federations.

Importantly, it will also explore how to use space technologies to promote air quality and environmental and economic sustainability around football stadiums.