Premier League Broadcasts Ref Cam for the First Time, Captures ‘Sick’ Goal

The most popular sports league in the world, the Premier League, deployed its new Ref Cam feature last night — feeding in the unique vantage point into the live broadcast.

Referee Simon Hooper was wearing the camera embroidered in his shirt during a pulsating game between Newcastle United and Liverpool — which the Premier League champions ultimately won 3 to 2 with a last-gasp winner.

But it was Liverpool’s opening goal, scored by Ryan Gravenberch, that caught the eye of a lot of viewers. The referee arguably captured the best angle of the goal scored from outside the penalty box since he happened to be standing right behind the Dutch player as he took his thunderous shot.

The camera doesn’t record — or at least broadcast — sound, which might be for the best given that the referee can be subject to abuse. But nevertheless many fans enjoyed the new angles, if not everyone.

“Ref Cam looks so poor,” writes one TikTok user. “It has the sharpness of early 2000s Fifa [games] and so shaky it actually made me nauseous at one point.”

There were a few complaints that the camera was giving motion sickness. But not everyone agreed with one Redditor calling the engle of Gravenberch’s goal “pretty sick.”

Although Ref Cam has been used before, last night marked the first time it has been used during a broadcast. The decision to use it his season comes after it was used during the Club World Cup held in the United States.

Head of referees at Fifa Pierluigi Collina hailed the impact as being “beyond our expectations” and he wants to see it in all games and in all sports.

The Guardian reports that the Premier League is currently trialing the technology and will make a decision on whether to make Ref Cam a permanent feature at the end of September.

Currently, no audio is being supplied but that could yet change. Fifa is expected to include the body cams at the World Cup next summer.