I live in Germany. I was taken with my colleagues yesterday for work to a large (more than 30,000 seats) football stadium in a neighboring town, and the head of the local IT department arranged for us a tour of the territory. It was quite interesting; I had no idea how technically complex a modern stadium was. In the process, we were shown a room locked in three locks with a fax machine – and told a surreal story.



The stadium in matches must comply with the general rules established by the sports administration. According to its requirements, immediately before the match, the representatives of the competing teams must sign a protocol that all the players are in place, the teams are ready for the game, there are no problems and so on. The protocol, according to the same requirements, is sent to the administration exclusively by fax. If the fax is not sent for any reason, the match cannot start. You have full tribunes of fans. Therefore, on the stadium, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, where wireless communication and IP-telephony are everywhere, there is an ancient fax requested from an independent power source, and a direct copper pair from the telephone station is laid to it. At the other end of the building is another one, for the case.



On my question “why not scan the protocol and download the e-mail” I was explained that the sports administration is extremely conservative and does not like to change the rules established in the past century.