The Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, believes it is "highly unlikely" there will ever be regular dressing-room access for broadcasters at games, despite BT Sport, who have paid £738m for 38 live games, calling for the move and claiming clubs may be open to it.
Asked if access for television cameras would ever be granted, Scudamore said: "It's highly unlikely. We've had a media access working group working on this topic for the last 18 months.
"I think there should be better access for media for managers and players and I think it's one of the regrets that we can't provide more access. But the slightly gimmicky idea of locker-room access – I'm not sure that's necessarily a good idea."
BT's executive producer, Grant Best, claimed that access to Premier League changing rooms could happen but Sky Sports would have to join the lobbying. Best, who was a match director and worked for Sky Sports for 15 years in between two spells working in the US for ESPN, where such access is normal, recently said: "There are a number of areas where we're talking to clubs to try to get access. We are inquiring [about dressing rooms]. We need their help. They're all being really open right now.
"I worked for Sky for a long time and I could never believe why they didn't somehow force the clubs to have more access. They've been doing it for a long time and the access has been limited in those areas."
When it was put to Scudamore that in the US dressing-room access is normal, he added: "I understand but I actually do understand that there's a mystique that goes on behind the dressing-room door and that maybe ought to just stay between the manager and the players, is my view.
"It's almost the last bastion of secrecy in football. I just think there is something about the dressing room that is sacrosanct because that is where the manager goes and does his work with his players. There must be things that go on in there that are between them."
Scudamore was also insistent that despite the number of American owners of Premier League clubs, he does not think they will push for it.
"I think most of the American owners are buying into the Premier League because they like the Premier League for what it is. I don't hear any American owner that says, we should wholesale take what the US does and bring it into English football. The opposite – they're saying, isn't it fantastic, English football, global interest – they're buying into it for the things that we've got that they haven't.
"At the minute, the clubs' and managers' collective view – and we've discussed it as part of the media access working group, which has resulted in a whole lot of stuff, including mixed zones for next year [season] – when we threw into the mix the idea of dressing-room access, it was a no-go area."
The Professional Footballers' Association chairman, Clarke Carlisle, has welcomed the possibility of dressing-room cameras. "Provided it is done in the same way as rugby league – in a fly-on-the-wall way that is not obtrusive – I think it could be quite an innovative idea," he said.