Ben Foster reveals Premier League banned him from putting GoPro in his goal, threatened with lawsuit

Ben Foster has revealed the Premier League threatened to sue him if he put his GoPro in his net.

The former Watford goalkeeper changed the game when he launched his 'Cycling GK' YouTube channel and provided behind the scenes access to football without fans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He made the decision to stick a GoPro in his goal and included the footage in his regular vlogs, giving a completely different perspective for fans.

Infamously, Jamal Lowe, playing for Swansea, celebrated right in front of the camera when he scored past Foster.

The ex Manchester United shotstoper saw the dollar signs and threw the clip straight into his next video.

Foster didn't actually get the go ahead from anyone to begin with - and was banned from replicating his content when Watford were promoted to the Premier League.

"I got the idea to put the GoPro in the back of the goal," he told talkSPORT.

"Nobody had seen it from that angle before. I did eventually [get it cleared]. I didn't ask, I did it and put the content out.

"I kept it under a towel. At first I didn't really tell anybody. I stuck it in the back of the goal, it's on a little Tripod.

"And then just to hear how footballers talk to each other and converse - and how I would tell my right back or left-back to come in, all that stuff people were just fascinated by it.

"I put it out and that's when the slap on the wrist came and they said, 'You can't just do that, you have to ask at least'.

"It was Sky and the EFL that I had to clear it with and they were brilliant and let me carry on doing it.

"As soon as the season finished, I had to go on a Zoom call with the Premier League and all these other big dogs. Basically, it was 'Don't even dream of doing that in the Premier League'.

"We have to charge Amazon, BT, Sky Sports, all these guys, so much money to broadcast our content. There's no way you're doing it. We will sue you like you wouldn't believe."

Foster, who is without a club, continues to post videos on his channel and has 1.15 million subscribers.

In October, Watford chairman Scott Duxbury claimed Foster was fined after breaking a promise on filming despite being told to stop.

“We want a culture of excellence at Watford," he told the Watford Those videos were not that. I wanted to say publicly at the time that the videos were utterly wrong and we had fined the player and asked him to stop, but it just wasn’t something I could do."

Featured Image Credit: Image: Ben Foster, talkSPORT & Alamy

Topics: Ben Foster, Premier League, Watford

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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