In recent years, Chilean football has been characterized by a number of violent incidents that have cast a shadow over the sport. These events have not only disrupted matches but have also raised serious concerns about safety and security in stadiums across the country.
On February 11, 2024, an incident happened during the Supercopa de Chile match between Huachipato and Colo-Colo at Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago. The match ended after 78 minutes, with Colo-Colo ahead 2-0, because of violent disruptions by their fans. The situation escalated to the point where the rest of the game had to be postponed and played behind closed doors months later.
A more recent example from August 21, 2025 at a Copa Sudamericana match between Independiente and Universidad de Chile was abandoned after violent clashes between fans, with some being stripped and beaten and one in a life-threatening condition after falling from the top tier of a stand.
These structural security problems can no longer be explained away as isolated incidents. Matches are suspended, stadiums are damaged, and the same groups of violent fans continue to appear despite bans and sanctions. The issue is not the lack of rules or punishment, but the lack of effective control over who actually enters the stadium.
Estadio Seguro failed because it never controlled identity
Estadio Seguro was designed to reduce violence through coordination, policing, and sanctions. What it never truly addressed was identity. The program could declare bans and restrictions, but it had no effective mechanism to ensure that banned individuals stayed out.
Often, the information provided while buying tickets was unverified, which made it easy for banned individuals to obtain tickets. They did this by either faking their details or having a friend buy on their behalf.
Thus, the issued stadium bans had a minimal impact. The number of incidents only saw a slight reduction, meaning that nearly every match still experiences disruptions.
Another key issue remains in the reliance on manual checks at stadium entrances. Security staff, who are often limited in number and under tight budgets, simply cannot accurately verify every ticket holder’s identity. This leaves a loophole that allows banned fans to slip through the cracks, maintaining the cycle of incidents. The failure of Estadio Seguro was not due to lack of effort. It failed because it did not solve the core problem – knowing who is entering the stadium.
Registro Nacional de Hinchas is the new solution
The introduction of the Registro Nacional de Hinchas marks a clear shift in approach. For the first time, the discussion moves from behaviour management to identity management. The registry aims to create a single, verified reference of fans who are allowed to attend matches.
However, a registry alone is not enough. Its effectiveness depends entirely on how identity is verified and enforced. This is why biometrics become a mandatory part of the conversation. Without biometric verification, the registry risks becoming another static database that can be bypassed through ticket transfers or false information.
“Registro Nacional de Hinchas brings a unified solution for verifying identities of fans, but poses a threat because individual clubs lose control of their fan data.
While a centralized database can help at the start, it becomes a limitation if the supplier stops supporting it. Clubs may find themselves needing to re-onboard all fans because they lack the necessary identity data. This gap makes it difficult to implement biometric access independently and reliably. Maintaining control over fan data at the club level ensures that identity verification and access enforcement remain continuous, even if the central registry faces interruptions.
Model of identity verification with club-owned fan data
For clubs, the Registro Nacional de Hinchas should not mean losing control over their fans’ data. On the contrary, it should enable clubs to finally have reliable, verified fan databases that they can manage responsibly.
Our approach is based on identity verification which can be integrated with existing ticketing platforms, such as Passline, so that clubs retain full ownership of all fan data for security or communication purposes.
The system can reliably scan local identity documents and validate them, including cross-checks against the national registry. These documents are then matched with a selfie using liveness detection to prevent fraudulent attempts. Once a person is registered, the club can issue tickets for every other game using the previously registered face, offering convenience for fans.
Once a fan has a verified account and a purchased ticket, they can transfer it, but only to another verified account. The system ensures face-to-face transfers, not just person-to-person. This means tickets never end up in the hands of banned individuals, and the platform fully controls all transfers.
On matchday, stadium access is straightforward and efficient. Fans scan their faces at the gate, and the process works on any Android device, whether a smartphone or tablet. This flexibility means clubs do not need to invest in expensive, fixed hardware that locks them in for years, allowing them to scale and adapt access control as needed.
Registro Nacional de Hinchas forces clubs to act fast
The Registro Nacional de Hinchas is a turning point for Chilean football. But its success depends on execution, not intention. Without verified identity and enforceable access control, the same problems will continue under a new name.
Clubs now have the opportunity to move from reactive security to controlled access. To know who their fans are, protect those who follow the rules, and prevent those who do not from entering.
At TruCrowd, we work with clubs that want to implement the Registro Nacional de Hinchas in a practical, privacy-conscious, and operationally realistic way. One that delivers results without jeopardizing the club’s finances. We understand that security is not just about making fans feel safe. Effective stadium security directly impacts a club’s revenue and bottom line.
