Britain is the most closely surveilled country in the world, with one closed circuit television camera to every fourteen people, so perhaps it’s no surprise that a Premiership team is planning to add a new level of security:

Hidden in lapels and hats, minute cameras would allow spotters in the crowd to beam live pictures from inside the stadium back to a control room where the images could be scanned in real-time for troublemakers and hooligans.

Of course, this raises an awful lot of questions about the creeping emergence of a Big Brother policing mentality in Britain and the increasing sterilisation of football stadia in England. At the same time it’s an eerie reminder of the dark days when all football fans were considered hooligans by the authorities as they were forced to watched games behind a ring of steel.

Remember Ken Bates’ insane plan to electrify those perimeter fences st Stamford Bridge? 21st century methods may be more humane and hidden, but there’s something creepy about this. Paging George Orwell. . .

Photo credit: gumanow on Flickr