German football team VfL Wolfsburg is using smart building technology from Canadian firm Kontrol to provide real-time air quality and viral monitoring.

The Kontrol BioCloud has been deployed in the club’s training and other facilities to support the health and safety of the team, guests and employees. VfL Wolfsburg is a top ranked German professional team owned by car manufacturer Volkswagen and will participate in the upcoming Champions League season.

“We are very pleased to make our entry into European professional sports, and the sport of soccer in particular, with such an accomplished partner as VfL Wolfsburg,” said Paul Ghezzi, CEO of Kontrol. “We look forward to showcasing BioCloud and its many advantages of monitoring training rooms and facilities for early viral detection. Ensuring the overall health and safety of athletes and employees is a critical priority for all athletic organisations, and we are encouraged by the increasing adoption of Kontrol’s technology on a global scale.”

Kontrol and Wolfsburg will work together to advocate for the safe-space technology and jointly market the BioCloud application globally. BioCloud will join VfL as an official partner for the 2021-2022 football season for the men’s and women’s teams.

“We are excited to have BioCloud as part of our plans and implementations to help safeguard the health and wellbeing of our athletes, guests and employees in our facilities,” said Michael Meeske, managing director at VfL Wolfsburg. “BioCloud is a very unique technology which fits well with our overall health and safety protocols. We look forward to sharing the BioCloud application to our VfL community and partner network as well as the broader soccer community at large to jointly create safer spaces within our ecosystem.”

VfL Wolfsburg was founded in 1945. The club originally grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg and the football division is a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen since 2001. The men’s professional team participates in the Bundesliga, the top tier of German football. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history in the 2008–09 season, the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in 2015 and the DFL-Supercup in 2015. Since 2002, VfL Wolfsburg’s stadium is the Volkswagen Arena that has a capacity of 30.000.

The women’s team is widely known for being one of the most successful and decorated teams in the recent decade and regularly competes at the highest level of European football.

Kontrol BioCloud is an operating subsidiary of Canadian public company Kontrol Technologies. The BioCloud technology is a real-time analyser designed to detect airborne viruses and pathogens. BioCloud has been designed to operate as a safe-space technology by sampling the air quality continuously. With a proprietary detection chamber that can be replaced as needed, viruses are detected, and a silent notification system is created. BioCloud can be applied to any space where individuals gather including classrooms, offices, retirement homes, hospitals and mass transportation.

Kontrol Technologies specialises in smart buildings and cities using IoT, cloud and SaaS technology. It combines software, hardware and services to improve energy management, air quality and continuous emission monitoring.