PREMIERSHIP match officials will be in radio contact next season as English football takes its first tentative steps into the technological age.

Referees' chief Keith Hackett has confirmed that the communication system, which angered Sam Allardyce when it was pioneered at a Wanderers match last November, will be used in all top flight league games.

The system, which will be in operation at the World Cup, allows referees to talk to their assistants and fourth officials using microphones and earpieces.

Former referee Hackett, who is head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, is confident it will improve standards of refereeing.

He said: "The referee has an open microphone, his two assistants and fourth official can hear what is being said by him so they can have an insight into the feel of the game.

"It has lots of benefits, the most important being speed of communication."

A Premier League spokesman described the development as "a positive step for the game."

Top ref Graham Poll, who will be one of the officials using the system in Germany next month, trialled the system at the Fulham-Wanderers game last season when Allardyce a long-time advocate of new technology was furious that he had not been informed in advance.

The Bolton boss accused Poll of being "over-zealous" in booking six of his players in a match Wanderers lost 2-1. Poll also red-carded El-Hadji Diouf as the teams left the field at the end.

"I should have refused to play," Allardyce said in the aftermath. "Incidents in the game were caused by the referee being wired up."