Selected referees across the Cumberland County League recently took to the field wearing body cameras for the first time for their games.
Their use for games on January 31 marked the league’s involvement in the FA’s ongoing pilot scheme.
Approved by the International Football Association Board in 2022, this innovative initiative aims to assess whether the use of bodycams can help improve player and coach behaviour towards match officials, while also offering referees an additional layer of safety and protection.
The pilot has already been trialled successfully in several parts of the country.
Earlier this season, the Cumberland County League was invited to participate and agreed to adopt the technology for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign.
Referees are equipped with a small camera mounted discreetly on their shirt. Although the device is always powered on, it does not record continuously.
Instead, if an incident occurs, the referee can activate the camera manually. Once triggered, the device captures the incident as well as the previous 30 seconds, ensuring vital context is not lost.
All recorded footage is stored securely and may be used as evidence in any subsequent disciplinary proceedings.
The trial is being delivered with the full support of The FA, in accordance with all relevant regulations, and is fully compliant with legal and safeguarding requirements.
Feedback and data gathered during the pilot will help inform IFAB’s future decisions on whether body worn cameras should be introduced more widely across the game.
Referee development officer Scott Taylor said: “This is an exciting opportunity for us in Cumberland, an honour in fact, to be selected as one of a small handful of County FA’s to trial the referee bodycams for the FA and IFAB.
“Data collected by our referees wearing the camera during the trial period on Cumberland County League fixtures will help shape the future of refereeing worldwide, and that has to be celebrated.”
Steve Rule, a referee who is part of the trial added after his first experience of wearing the bodycam: “I didn’t know I was wearing it until someone of the players commented on it.”
When asked how it had impacted and influenced the players during the game he said that the cameras received “a thumbs up as a deterrent”.
