Newcastle United is giving hearing-impaired visitors a new stadium experience: with shirts that convert the atmosphere in the football arena into vibrations – and make them tangible, so to speak. The technology will soon benefit many.
Local idol Dan Burn’s gesture probably meant just as much to the hearing-impaired fans of Newcastle United as their club’s resounding victory. After his goal, Burn crossed his arms, tapped his chest with the flats of his hands and then clenched his fists in front of his body. The sequence of these hand movements is called “Love the fans” in British sign language. The television cameras immediately caught the reaction of several deaf children in the stadium, who imitated the signs with enthusiasm. Some of them had met Burn and his team-mate Kieran Trippier before the match and rehearsed the cheer with them. The performance was the highlight of the Newcastle game, where the experience for deaf spectators was more important than goals and points.
Newcastle’s shirt sponsor Sela, a sports and events company from Saudi Arabia, which is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund as well as 80 percent of the traditional club, developed the first football shirt for people who are hard of hearing and completely deaf as part of the unique “Unsilence The Crowd” campaign. The company presented the idea to the club, which immediately supported the concept. For those interested in other exciting promotions, check out the Slotozen promo code here.
Tomorrow in the stadium
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In collaboration with the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), the club invited a group of hearing-impaired people to the Premier League home game against Tottenham Hotspur and provided them with the new shirts. In the UK, one in five adults suffers from a hearing impairment. To raise awareness of these everyday problems, Sela even ceded the shirt advertising to the charity organisation. In an RNID study, the overwhelming majority of hearing-impaired people surveyed said they could not beat the thrill of a sporting event at the stadium.
Sounds are converted into tactile sensory stimuli in the fabric of the shirts
The new haptic shirts, which convert stadium noise into vibrations, gave fans a completely different match experience for the first time: they were able to feel the live atmosphere in the atmospheric St James’ Park in the flesh. And? How did Newcastle’s exhilarating 4-0 (2-0) win with two goals in 95 seconds feel? Under the slogan “What a game, what a day, what a jersey”, Sela presented the reactions of the deaf fans in pictures. On display: Cheers, enthusiasm and pride.
The transformation of the background noise in decisive situations into a real-time tactile sensation is based on complicated technical mechanisms. The basic prerequisite is the recording of the stadium atmosphere: analogue microphone recordings are converted into digital sound by software and then analysed and recorded as data. The information is transmitted via wireless antennae to the electronic brains installed in the jerseys. These operate “tiny electronic circuits with a microprocessor”, which in turn “cause motors to vibrate in resonance with the acoustic reaction of the crowd”, according to the instructions. This results in tactile sensory stimuli on the skin of the shirt wearer.
In future, the technology will be available at all of the club’s home games and will make it easier for deaf people to access live sporting events. Newcastle coach Eddie Howe praised the sponsor’s commitment and emphasised Burn’s gesture, saying it showed that football has the power to enrich people with experiences they would not otherwise have. Those involved used the huge media impact in England to promote sustainability on this issue. Peter Silverstone, the club’s commercial director, hopes the initiative will “revolutionise” the football experience for anyone with a hearing impairment – no matter who they support. Sela representative Ibrahim Mohtaseb expressed similar sentiments, calling on the football community to embrace the new technology.
After the game, Dan Burn said that as a child he had always enjoyed feeling the atmosphere in the stadium. Because deaf people are deprived of this, he was determined to do something for them by cheering. “I was moved by all the children,” he said – and they felt the same way he did at that moment.
Leverkusen beat Bremen to win the title for the first time
With a 5-0 win in the clash with Werder, the Werkself secured the trophy five match days before the end of the season – coach Xabi Alonso celebrated his first major triumph as a professional coach. For the first time since 2012, a team other than FC Bayern became champions.
The curse has been lifted – and “Vizekusen” is finally history: the high-flyers from Bayer Leverkusen have crowned their unique fabulous season with the first German championship in the club’s history. Coach Xabi Alonso’s invincibles converted their first match ball in a 5:0 (1:0) win over Werder Bremen on match day 29, giving the Werksklub the redemption it had been longing for after decades of futile attempts, bankruptcies, tragedies and five championship runners-up finishes. Starting XI returnee Victor Boniface (25th, foul penalty after video evidence), Granit Xhaka (60th) and substitute Florian Wirtz with a treble (68th/83rd/90th) shot Bayer into seventh football heaven with five games remaining.
The first fans stormed onto the pitch after the 4:0 goal, but were immediately sent back behind the bar by their own players. Leverkusen not only equalled Juventus Turin’s European record from 2011 to 2012 with their 43rd competitive match in a row without defeat, the Werkself also broke the dominance of record champions Bayern Munich after eleven championships. For the first time since Borussia Dortmund in 2012, another club secured the trophy.
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Even on the way to the stadium, the team bus had to fight its way through a huge crowd. The colours red and black also dominated in pubs and kiosks, with flags and red smoke everywhere and fans were able to stock up on championship fan merchandise before kick-off. The street sign for Bismarckstraße had been pasted over in front of the arena – on Sunday the road was simply called “Xabi-Alonso-Allee”. In the stands, club legends such as Reiner Calmund and Rudi Völler cheered on the fans. And they saw a Bayer starting eleven that had been thoroughly shuffled compared to the Europa League quarter-final first leg against West Ham United (2:0).
Alonso was without international players Wirtz, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jeremie Frimpong, Patrik Schick and Exequiel Palacios, for example, and made a total of seven changes. They initially conserved their strength ahead of the second leg in London on Thursday. However, Leverkusen looked a little nervous at the start. A shot from Piero Hincapie (8′) posed a threat, but otherwise Werkself made the odd sloppy pass against a committed Bremen side.
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It was only when Jonas Hofmann was fouled and the referee awarded a penalty after video evidence that Bayer picked up the pace. Boniface, who started again after a long injury lay-off, converted safely. Bayer’s players and coaches had kept their fingers crossed for Bayern and VfB Stuttgart the day before to prevent a sofa championship. Alonso even declared beforehand that he would also be ready for a possible beer shower. However, Jonas Hofmann (35) and Amine Adli missed the second goal with a crossbar shot (38). Wirtz came on for the second half and, after a bit of a run-up, fired his first warning shot (58′). Shortly afterwards, Xhaka flicked the ball into the goal – and ignited the next stage of the big title party.
“Only SVB will be German champions,” sang the fans, and the final phase, in which Wirtz increased the lead with a dream goal from distance, turned into an exhibition match. Wirtz scored the next goal shortly before the end. Bayer had only won two titles in 120 years of club history, but this season they could be on course for the treble. Leverkusen go into the DFB Cup final against second-division side 1. FC Kaiserslautern (25 May) as firm favourites, while Alonso’s team also have the best chance of progressing to the next round before the second leg of the Europa League at West Ham (first leg 2:0).
