Premier League to test Ref Cams on first weekend with view to permanent rollout

The Premier League is planning to test Ref Cams in selected matches during its opening round of fixtures this weekend with a view to making the new technology a permanent feature of live TV games for the rest of the season.

The Guardian has learned that the clubs have given their approval for the trial with the Premier League’s broadcast partners, Sky Sports and TNT Sports, also supporting the innovation.

Fifa trialled Ref Cams at this summer’s Club World Cup in the United States, after which the chair of its refereeing committee, Pierluigi Collina, said the experiment had gone “beyond expectations”.

Following a post-tournament review the International Football Association Board (Ifab), which determines the laws of the game, gave its approval for the Ref Cam trial to be extended to domestic competitions last month. The Premier League subsequently trialled the new equipment in the final two matches of its pre-season Summer Series tournament in the US, between Bournemouth and West Ham, and Manchester United and Everton in Atlanta.

The Premier League and broadcasters have embraced the new technology as they believe it enriches the viewer’s TV experience by giving them a unique view of the action. While the Ref Cams do not offer live action footage, they can be used to provide near-instant replays of match incidents from a different angle.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the refereeing body, is also supportive on the grounds that Ref Cams will give an extra insight into the difficulty of refereeing top-flight matches, as well as highlighting the fact that officials sometimes have a limited view of crucial incidents despite their best efforts.

View image in fullscreen Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella with the Club World Cup. Ref Cams were used during the summer competition. Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Ref Cam technology involves referees wearing cameras on their right ear, connected to a microphone and transmitter, which sends video to the broadcasters. Two wires – one for the camera and the other for a microphone – are put on the back of the referee’s shirt and a transmitter is placed in a shorts pocket.

PGMOL has been looking to innovate in this area for some time, with Jarred Gillett wearing a head-mounted Ref Cam during a Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester United in a trial last year, although the footage was only broadcast in highlights programmes at a later date. The Premier League also trialled chest-mounted GoPro cameras in its US Summer Series two years ago without broadcasting the action during matches.

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At the Club World Cup, the Ref Cam footage was shown on big screens at the stadiums, as well as being broadcast by global rights holder Dazn during the games, which the Premier League want to replicate. Having been impressed by the Club World Cup trial, Fifa is expected to approve the use of Ref Cams for next summer’s World Cup.

The Premier League declined to comment.

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