State-of-the-Art Access Systems at Spurs’ Football Academy

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’s brand new state-of-the-art training academy on a 77-acre site in Essex is where the Premier League club’s stars, their reserves, and academy teams, train.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Football Academy

Securing a site as large as this and with all of the high-value assets associated with a top football club — gym equipment, high-profile stars, not to mention their cars — is a complex operation. Classic Security Solutions were contracted by the club to help create an intelligent integrated security solution, enabled by Inner Range’s technology.

The Football Academy is a massive 77-acre site

Among the club’s requirements were:

• Site-wide intruder detection system to EN50131 grade 3
• Access control for 40+ doors
• Control and monitoring of entire site via graphical interfaces at multiple locations
• An IP-based infrastructure to ensure the site was future proof and the contractor could minimise the number of ducts and cables
• Real-time asset tracking system to detect and instantly report unauthorised movement of high-value items, (lawn mower tractors and grounds maintenance tools) preventing unauthorised movement, removal, or theft from site
• For first-team players, deliver a biometric access control solution which would work effectively with dirty hands and all-weather play
• Rather than use a standard access control card which would be difficult for reserve team and younger academy team players to carry, utilise a lightweight and non-intrusive wristband incorporating RFID access control technology
• Ability to create and print access cards away from the main security

The integrated system that Inner Range and Classic Security were able to deliver means that first-team players never have to carry access cards with them, and can rely on the biometric system to work even with muddy or wet hands.

The biometric readers used in the project were made by IEVO, while RFID access solutions for the reserve and academy players were provided by Identec. Classic Security are now looking at expanding the RFID tagging to all high-value equipment stored at the site — presumably Gareth Bale had his tag removed before he left for Madrid — enabling the club to receive an instant notification if there’s an unauthorised attempt to remove an asset.

The access gates, complete with fingerprint scanners

Classic Security Solutions’ Ray Anderson praised the Inner Range integration team for their assistance in the project at Tottenham Hotspur Football Academy. He said:

The valuable input from the Inner Range integration team coupled with their Concept and Insight security solutions have enabled us to not only deliver all of the football club’s current access control needs, but ensure the site is future-proofed; allowing for the implementation of further security and building automation systems as and when required.

The system also comprises an access solution for all doors that can be expanded up to an incredible 50,000 doors, as well as a graphical interface that provides complete visibility of all building management systems throughout the site.

For more information please contact Inner Range Europe on +44 (0)845 470 5000, or email [email protected].

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