Premier League keeps close watch on ball-chip technology used in Spain

The Premier League has monitored the use of sensor-equipped footballs in competitive matches as it considers whether the technology could eventually be introduced in England.

Connected-ball technology contains a sensor inside the ball which records the precise moment it is touched. That information can give match officials additional data when reviewing incidents including offside decisions, handball appeals, deflections and double touches.

Sources told The Athletic that Premier League representatives observed the system during the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in London in January and at the 2025 Wings Cup youth tournament hosted by RB Leipzig.

The technology was used with Puma match balls at those events, but it has not yet been tested in a Premier League fixture.

“There are no immediate plans to introduce connected-ball technology in the Premier League,” the sources said. “The current semi-automated offside system can determine the direction of the ball without an internal sensor, but the league will continue to monitor its use elsewhere.”

La Liga became the first professional domestic football competition to use connected-ball technology in every match of a season. Its system uses radio-frequency sensors developed by German company Kinexon Sports and installed in Puma match balls.

Data from the balls is transmitted to about 12 aerials positioned around each stadium, allowing officials and the relevant technology systems to track contact with the ball in greater detail.

The Premier League’s existing semi-automated offside system instead relies on optical tracking. Up to 30 cameras positioned around each ground follow the ball and record thousands of data points for every player.

That information is used to suggest the point at which the ball was played before automatically creating offside lines for the video assistant referee system.

When the Premier League system was introduced in April 2025, league officials said an internal sensor was not required because the optical tracking technology could identify the moment the ball was played.

“There was no need for a sensor inside the ball because our optical tracking was capable of identifying when the ball was played, while the chip inside the ball would provide a separate measurement of that moment of contact,” Premier League officials said at the time.

Connected-ball technology has already been used with Adidas balls at several major international tournaments. Those competitions include the 2022 and 2026 men’s World Cups, the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Euro 2024, UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 and the 2025 Club World Cup.

The technology was also seen in use at this summer’s World Cup. It helped disallow a late equaliser by Croatia in their last-32 defeat by Portugal after detecting that the ball had touched Igor Matanovic at the start of the move.

The contact occurred before the ball reached Croatia midfielder Mario Pasalic, who was subsequently found to have been in an offside position. The incident demonstrated how an embedded sensor can provide officials with an additional measurement of the exact point at which the ball makes contact with a player.