Premier League set to broadcast training sessions with managers and players mic’d up and wearing cameras in latest TV coverage innovation

Premier League training sessions – with managers and players mic’d up and wearing cameras – are set to be broadcast this season.

Mail Sport understands clubs have agreed to throw open their practice facility doors at least once per campaign, with film crews capturing previously unseen footage from behind-the-scenes.

In January, we revealed how clubs were to green light players wearing body cams during warm-ups and walkouts, filming from inside dressing rooms, half-time interviews with a player, manager or coach and chats with players have been substituted.

And now, top-flight sides have agreed to go a step further in a move which will allow viewers to see the how the game’s top stars and their coaches prepare for matches.

Currently, broadcasters are allowed training ground access around once per month, purely just to film footage that can be used to go alongside reporting and coverage.

However, under an amendment to Section K of the Premier League rules, each club must now grant the League’s production partner access to film a 30-minute ‘Enhanced Training Session’, with at least one player, plus the manager or a coach, wired up for audio. 

Clubs must submit a shortlist of five recent starters for the League to pick from, and the player could end up sporting a body cam should they agree to do so.

Clubs can choose to shoot the footage themselves but must still meet the League’s production brief. 

Twenty-four hours will be given for them to approve the final edit. The sessions can also double up with clubs’ existing obligations for behind-the-scenes content – which may well come as music to the ears of media teams already juggling a mountain of PR duties.

League insiders have instead that safeguarding measures will be in place to ensure no sensitive information of footage is disclosed, such as tactical planning and team selection.

League guidance insists that the filming should not disrupt football operations – although some may well see it as an opportunity to portray themselves in a positive light.