FAS ● May 19, 2020
Football Management Platform Training Course for Match Commissioners
SINGAPORE, 19 MAY 2020 – In a bid to effectively streamline match day operation processes for match commissioners, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), in collaboration with SportRadar, have officially rolled out the Football Management Platform (FMP). SportRadar is an official partner of FAS who delivers relevant sports data and content to sports federations and media companies.
The FMP is an online system which allows the FAS to automatically generate official competition collaterals such as starting team lists and match reports. In 2019, the system was deployed as a pilot initiative by the FAS Competitions department to ensure that it was functional. Subsequently, more tweaks were made to the system to ready it for an official launch.
Earlier this year, an extensive training session was conducted for match commissioners to learn how to utilise the FMP. It received positive feedback for its ease of use and accessibility to official match documents which have now been digitised for each competitive game.
Before the launch of the FMP, match commissioners were required to manually input details for the official starting line-ups list. The same applied to match report submissions after a match.
With the introduction of the FMP for the 2020 Singapore Premier League (SPL) season, the time taken to generate start lists and match reports has been significantly reduced, while also increasing efficiency and accuracy of the required documents.
However, with the FMP being highly digitised, it was pertinent to ensure that match commissioners, who were unfamiliar with the system, could receive the right training to prepare them for when the league restarts. Hence, a three-day webinar was organised from 11 to 13 May, in conjunction with SportRadar’s new FMP version 2.0 update, to engage all match commissioners on the new functions as well as to improve their competencies on the platform. Due to the ongoing circuit breaker measures which encourages citizens to stay at home in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19, the session had to be conducted via Zoom, a video conferencing platform.
Participant feedback
At the end of the three-day webinar, most participants felt that the session was useful, as it taught them how to utilise the FMP in a manner that allows efficient recording of information, while at the same time also safeguarding their data input.For match commissioner Said Nasir, attending a webinar course was personally daunting as it was something he had never done before, but having his daughter beside him to solve any technical glitches kept him at ease. After going through the course, he felt that the FMP will be useful for match commissioners due to the ease of use of the platform, which also provides systematic updates of any ongoing matches.
Nasir highlighted two key advantages which the FMP would bring to them, “For the generation of start lists before a match, we only need to input details from the selection lists provided by both teams and the system would churn it out for us. This is much more efficient than what we were used to in the past where we had to do everything manually.”
“Another thing I noticed about the FMP was that whenever we made a mistake such as inputting the wrong number of players, the system would immediately highlight the error to us, minimising any inaccuracy.”
Nasir also felt that the webinar served as a good learning platform to keep the match commissioners updated on the latest technological tools that would aid them in doing their jobs better. “It was good that we could seek clarification and clear our doubts on matters that we could not comprehend, as the trainers were constantly encouraging us to ask questions and were very patient in answering them, making it a fruitful session for all of us.“
When asked about his main takeaway from the three-day webinar, Nasir said, “I feel that I have become more proficient in operating the FMP, and I definitely gained more knowledge about the platform too. The system is user friendly, which makes it easier for us to operate it efficiently! I was also glad to see all the match commissioners being enthusiastic during the webinar, and I am confident that each of us will contribute to the success of future matches and tournaments once football is able to resume again after the circuit breaker.”
Match commissioner Salikin Sarkawi especially enjoyed how the webinar was conducted in an interactive manner as he felt that it allowed him to actively pose questions to maintain focused and engaged. He said, “I personally like how the webinar allows me to build on my relationships with the other match commissioners and have real-time conversations with them. It also helped that the overall atmosphere remained light and relaxed, so I enjoyed participating!”
“The additional bonus for me though, was the time and money I saved from travelling, which also means I have energy to focus on the webinar!”
