Kick-Ass to Kick-off for Netflix guru and Albion Rovers fan, Mark Millar and Stenhousemuir FC

Stenhousemuir have teamed up with the man behind Hollywood blockbusters The Avengers, Kick-Ass and Kingsman Mark Millar to deliver live streams of matches of next season’s lower league kick-off across the country and the world.

Using specialised cameras placed around stadiums and powered by robots and artificial intelligence, games can be beamed around the world without the need for large outdoor broadcast teams.

The Pixellot scheme will be used for Warriors TV at Stenhousemuir, and their matchday one opponents’ Albion Rovers’ ground – funded personally by Millar, from Coatbridge but now based in Los Angeles for work with Netflix and Millarworld which developed some Hollywood blockbusters.

The technology uses a multi-camera system that covers the whole field of play, capturing all the action before streaming it straight into sports venues and homes where viewers can zoom in on the action.

Millar teamed up with Ochilview chairman Iain McMenemy to develop the scheme which has been taken up by 22 of the 30 clubs across the three leagues below the SPFL Premiership who begin their seasons next month.

Mark Millar said: “This is a game-changer for football in general and as exciting to me as any Hollywood premiere. I love that two modest Scottish clubs are where this whole idea began. My worry when I saw the locked-up stadium in Coatbridge was how all the clubs outside the Premiership were going to survive the lockdown a few months back so I picked up my pad and pen and startled scribbling possible solutions. “The solution we came up with after deep conversations with Iain from Stenhousemuir and my good friend Liam, the digital platforms guru, is transformative. Now fans in Coatbridge or my ex-pat cousins in New Zealand, Canada and Australia can tune in one Saturdays and watch the Rovers hump the competition.”

Stenhousemuir will hope to avoid being their first victims, however Iain mcMenemy and Liam Nugent, CEO of we.soccer also worked with Millar to take the technological revolutoion further – into the hands of the referees. A new match-day app allows officials at games to generate live match reports for fans - giving them easily accessible information about line ups, goals, bookings and substitutions – all in a Covid safe environment.

The app allows teams to submit their line-ups to the match officials without contact and maintaining social distance.

Iain McMenemy said: “From position a few months ago that was very bleak, we’re hugely positive about the future as this is a huge technological leap forward for Scottish football, and just the start of increasing access and exposure to football outside of the Premiership.

“I took the idea to the league and fellow club officials, and many saw the benefits straight away.

“Clubs in the Championship are getting the technology installed as part of a new deal with IMG for watch and bet rights, whilst a number of clubs across Leagues 1 and 2 used a combination of self- funding and sponsorship to get their systems in place.

“The past six months have been difficult for Scottish football, hopefully this new innovation is at least one positive thing we can take away and build upon to help our clubs recover.”

Liam Nugent added: “Scottish football is absolutely brilliant, but it has often been accused of being slow to change and lacking in new ideas. Today blows that notion completely out of the water. This is global thinking. It is a sure sign that everyone, at all levels of the game, is ready to embrace new ideas when new ideas are required.

“And, even although we are introducing technology to the game – and taking away the referee’s pencil and paper – if you commit a bad foul, you are still going in the book!”

Not only did Mark Millar provide behind the scenes help and support, but he also personally funded the purchase and installation of the Pixellot system and we.soccer App for his local club Albion Rovers. This funding was provided through his Millar Foundation, the charity he runs with his wife Lucy. Normally, the Millars fund school, church and local events in the Coatbridge housing scheme where Mark grew up, but social distancing has made these impossible for most of this year and so the money they had set aside to donate this summer has gone into this and Father Michael Kane’s food bank at St Augustine’s Church.