Crowdguard has delivered a wide array of safety, security and crowd management projects at various sporting venues across the UK, but, when it comes to stadiums, they don’t come any more high profile or iconic than Wembley.

The home of English football and coveted destination for FA Cup finalists, the stadium is instantly recognisable for sports fans from across the world. This year, with the popularity of women’s football growing at a rapid rate, Crowdguard was approached to install a crowd management and segregation solution as part of a fan zone facility for an international match between the Lionesses – now European Champions – and the USA; the team that has been at the vanguard of the women’s game for years.

The brief to Crowdguard from event management company, The Event People, was to provide a temporary fencing solution located in Wembley’s ‘green zone’ outside the ground. The chosen solution had to be completely surface-mounted with no fixings that could damage the road surface, while providing robust, attack-tested demarcation of the fan zone area that ruled out any toppling risk due to either force or crowd surge.

The temporary fencing solution that Crowdguard specified, supplied and installed for the project was FenceSafe SR1 attack-tested temporary fencing from CLD Physical Security Systems. Ideal for use as temporary event security or perimeter protection, FenceSafe SR1 temporary fencing provides a guaranteed minimum delay of at least 60 seconds against attacks using a range of tools. The 2.4m high fencing has 76.2 x 12.5mm mesh aperture panels to offer a true anti-climb system and it is secured to surface-mounted, recycled plastic ballasting blocks using CLD’s SafeTFix hidden fixing system. This means that the fencing provides the resilience to force and attack of a permanent fence, while requiring no foundations or fixing to the ground, nor any external fixings to the exterior face.

Alongside the need for a robust, surface-mounted 100m fan zone perimeter, the requirement for the Wembley project also included pedestrian access and egress at one end of the enclosure, along with access to allow emergency vehicles if required at the other. This was built into the design for the installation, with a 5m aperture for pedestrians on one side and a 6m aperture for emergency vehicles at the other.

The Crowdguard team responded quickly to the brief, deploying skilled operatives to the stadium for the installation, which took just six hours to complete, including correct ballasting and all quality control checks. The fencing was removed with the same speed and efficiency when it was no longer required, leaving no visible sign that it had ever been there at all.

Iain Moran, managing director of Crowguard commented: “Fan zones are an increasingly popular way for stadiums to provide a managed environment for fans that arrive early before a game and want to stay to celebrate (or commiserate) together afterwards. They can also be a place for non-ticket holders to enjoy the excitement of the game, before, during and after the match.

“The FenceSafe SR1 temporary fencing we installed at Wembley is just one of the fan zone solutions we have provided for UK stadiums recently. We can deliver a turnkey solution for fan zones, including threats, vulnerabilities and risk assessment, specification, supply, installation, maintenance and de-rigging, with systems tailored to answer the layout of the location, the level of risk and the club’s operational needs.

“The project was a winner all round – a safe environment for fans and a 2-0 victory for the Lionesses!”