Manchester City shows off a smart scarf that tracks fan reactions

The club has partnered with Cisco to create a connected scarf embedded with a biosensor to “get a better understanding of the emotion at the heart of the world’s beautiful game.”

On Wednesday, the Premier League football club shared that it has been working with Cisco, the team’s technology partner since 2019, to create a “Connected Scarf” that features an “EmotiBit” sensor for tracking the heart rate, body temperature and emotional state of its wearer during a match.

According to the two organizations, the accessory will bring “fans closer to the game than ever before,” but exactly how it will do is unclear.

Cisco says it recently completed a pilot program to test the device. The company and Manchester City invited six “lifelong” fans to watch the team play. Meanwhile, the scarf recorded data across 120 “moments of interest,” providing the two organizations with “concrete information” to analyze how each fan in the room felt.

“Using the data, we’ll be able to understand fans more than ever before,” said Chintan Patel, chief technology officer of Cisco UK and Ireland. “It provides an opportunity to be more inclusive and learn more about the role sport plays in all our lives.”

Matchday can be a 🎢 of emotions for #ManCity fans!

The @Cisco Connected Scarf plans on capturing them all to bring fans closer to the game than ever before 🙌

Find out more 👇

— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 27, 2022

Right now, the scarf is part of a limited pilot program, where select fans have been chosen to wear the scarf. According to Reuters, the scarf will also be distributed to some fans of New York City FC, the club’s sister team. The club says it’ll be available to Manchester City fans globally starting next season.

As bonkers as the idea might be, introducing this kind of wearable fan merchandise also raises several questions. Will it have to be charged? How much will it cost? (Probably, and likely more than is sensible.)

Can it survive the wash, or will you have to deal with an incredibly stinky scarf after a few games? But also, how will Manchester City protect users’ privacy, considering the fact the scarves will collect biometric data? We likely won’t know those details until the scarf actually becomes available to the public — if it ever truly does.