Premier League clubs could offer an app to fans which would send virtual cheers or jeers from their homes to stadiums in under a second, in an attempt to generate an atmosphere for matches behind closed doors.
Sportsmail has learned that Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal have held talks this week with a German technology company who have developed an app which will offer supporters four choices for generating noise to be played in empty grounds.
The app also gives clubs the option of using different sound levels for home and away supporters, which could reduce some of the objections to the Premier League campaign being concluded at neutral venues by maintaining a semblance of home advantage.
The myapplause app has been tested by two Bundesliga clubs with a view to being used in grounds if the German top flight resumes later this month, and Munich-based company hack-CARE are eager to roll out the technology to the Premier League.
Clubs would be offered use of the app for free with a potential share in revenue raised in the future, and fans likely to be charged £1 for the initial download with no additional cost for using it.
Fans who access the app are asked to select which game they want to watch and which team they support.
Once the match starts, users are presented with four options if they want to engage with the action — cheer, clap, sing and whistle/jeer — which will be played in the stadium almost immediately and broadcast on television.
Jurgen Kreuz of hack-CARE told Sportsmail that the app has the capacity to accommodate one million fans with a delay in transmitting sound to stadiums of a tenth of a second.
Clubs would be given the chance to mix differing sound levels for home and away fans in stadiums, which would go some way towards restoring an element of the home advantage lost by staging all games at neutral stadiums.
The technology also enables clubs to pump out different sounds in different areas of the stadium, so an element of an away end could be maintained if it is adopted.
The company hack-CARE are yet to pitch their product to the Premier League as a whole and they are hoping to gain interest from the biggest clubs first.
They have two business models, one based on the app being embraced by the entire league and the broadcasters, and another whereby they do separate deals with individual clubs.
Even if the Premier League are reluctant to use the app, clubs could still offer it to their own supporters, pushing it as a way to connect with each other and feel part of the match-day experience in the event of the fixture programme returning later this summer.