New technology? Premier League takes a closer look at La Liga’s bold experiment

The Premier League has been monitoring connected ball technology as it considers whether the system could eventually be used in England.

The technology, already being used across every La Liga match this season, could give officials another source of data when dealing with offsides, handballs, deflections and double touches.

The Premier League has already watched the system in competitive settings, including the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in London and the 2025 Wings Cup youth tournament in Leipzig.

Premier League keeps close eye on La Liga’s connected ball technology

According to The Athletic, connected ball technology uses a sensor inside the match ball to identify the exact moment it is touched.

La Liga has become the first professional domestic league to use the technology in every match this season. Its system uses radio frequency sensors developed by Kinexon Sports and fitted inside Puma match balls.

Around 12 antennas are installed at each stadium to collect the data.

However, Premier League clubs will not be seeing the technology in action just yet.

Sources told The Athletic that there are currently no plans to introduce connected balls in Premier League matches, partly because England’s existing semi-automated offside system can already determine the direction of the ball without an internal sensor.

The league instead uses optical tracking, with up to 30 cameras following the ball and thousands of data points tracking players around the pitch.

That system helps identify the kick point before automatically suggesting offside lines for VAR.

When the technology was introduced in April 2025, Premier League officials explained that a ball sensor was not necessary because optical tracking could already determine when the ball was played.

Connected ball technology would, however, provide a separate measurement of that moment of contact.

The technology has already featured at several major tournaments using Adidas balls, including the 2022 and 2026 men’s World Cups, Euro 2024, the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Women’s Euro 2025 and the 2025 Club World Cup.

It even played a role at this summer’s World Cup, when a late Croatia equaliser against Portugal was ruled out after the chip detected an earlier touch by Igor Matanovic.

For now, the Premier League is only monitoring La Liga’s experiment. But with the technology already being tested at major competitions, England’s interest could be worth watching as VAR continues to evolve.

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