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.

 

Harry Maguire has expressed his belief that Manchester United will need to be «mentally strong» to return to the top, while reiterating his desire to win trophies over the next few years.
Maguire committed to a six-year contract at Old Trafford after completing a record £80 million ($99m) move from Leicester last summer, becoming the world›s most expensive defender in the process.
The 27-year-old has since justified his price tag by helping to transform the Red Devils into a solid defensive unit once again, striking up a formidable partnership with Victor Lindelof at the back.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saw enough in Maguire to hand him the captain›s armband in January, and the change in leadership quickly inspired a turnaround in results.
United were unbeaten in 11 matches before the season was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic in March, with nine clean sheets recorded during that period.
A place in the Premier League›s top four is now within sight, while progress has also been made in the Europa League and FA Cup, and Maguire has been credited as one of the driving forces behind the team›s recent revival.
The England centre-back acknowledges the fact that United were far too inconsistent in the first half of the season, but feels positive signs of progress have been shown in 2020.
“As a Red, our toughest opponent, probably, is ourselves,» Maguire said during a Q&A for MUTV.
«I would say that, at times this year, as a team, we have probably let ourselves down by being a bit too inconsistent. Not just for a full game but during games.
“There have been times when we›ve been so good in games and then we›ve come off it a bit and been punished. So I›d say our toughest opponent is ourselves.
“We need to be mentally strong. We are a young group but we don›t really want to use that as an excuse. We want to be young but play mature. That is where we have really picked up in recent weeks.”
Maguire outlined his silverware ambitions upon his arrival at the Theatre of Dreams back in August, and doubled down on his comments while discussing his future goals.
“I have joined this club because I want to win trophies and I want to get silverware,” he added. “When I look back on my time at Manchester United, I want to make sure I have some trophies in that cabinet.”

 

for Olympic champion Fabio Basile it is a virtue which has served him well over the last few weeks in Europe’s longest lockdown.
Until a few weeks ago, Basile was confident about his preparations to defend the 66-kilo Olympic gold medal he won four years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
Yet the COVID-19 pandemic, which led Italy to enter an eight-week lockdown and caused the Tokyo Games to be postponed for one year, forced him to put his preparations on hold and he was only able to resume intense training sessions this week.
“I learnt about the postponement of the Olympics here at the Olympic centre,” he told Reuters during a training session. “I remember it as if it was today.
“I cannot say that it was nice news to hear, because I was in very good shape; I had just a won a Grand Prix in Tel Aviv. I could feel that I was starting to build up the same kind of energy that I felt before the last Olympics, but now I think it’s better this way.
“The health of world’s population is more important - the Olympics can wait. I think that if you are number one in the world, you are number one today, in July 2020 and you will also be number one in 2021, no problem.”
Italy is still far from normality.
 At the Olympic centre near Rome, where Basile was training, there would normally be around 100 athletes practising judo, karate and wrestling. On Tuesday, Basile was the only one.
“I obviously thought about it and I hoped until the last moment that the Olympic Games would not be postponed. But again, this is not an easy situation,” he said.
“There have been deaths and this is not a game. We all need patience, and judo teaches that as well, patience. Calm is the virtue of the strong.”
Judo also taught him how to confront his fears, he said.
“The first thing that judo taught me when I was a child, I was about six or seven-years-old, was precisely: how to face my fears,” he said.
“Fear is a feeling that prevents us humans from doing many things that we would like to do. It paralyses us, it imprisons us. Now is a time to be courageous. We must go forward and be positive — that’s it.”