The Tajikistan Football Federation selected the FIFA-certified videoReferee®, slomo.tv VAR system, and began implementation of the VAR technology.
Nowadays, it is hard to imagine football without VAR technology, which makes the game cleaner and fairer. For this reason more and more national leagues and federations are implementing VAR in their football championships and cups.
The VAR is not just about servers and cameras. It is a whole system that includes equipment, personnel, administrative procedures, and special methods. And it is very important to implement all of these components as quickly as possible.
For the Tajikistan Football Federation, one of the reasons for choosing slomo.tv equipment as the basis of its VAR system was that the company has extensive experience in VAR implementation in national football championships, based on its unique Academy training platform.
As part of the VAR implementation, a technical training seminar for video referees (VARs), assistant referees (AVARs) and replay operators (ROs) was held in Dushanbe. The slomo.tv's workshop was attended by referees who work at the Tajikistan championship matches, as well as representatives of TV channels. The participants moved from theory to practice: they learned how to work the system, performed tasks at different VAR positions and practiced procedures for various controversial game moments.
Slomo.tv’s videoReferee®-8F, an 8-camera VAR server that the referees will work with in the future, and the Academy training simulator were used during the seminar. The Academy is a unique combination of specialized hardware and software developed by slomo.tv for intensive training. Using a prepared library of clips with controversial moments it allows to emulate "live" signals from cameras. Together with the videoReferee® server, it immerses the trainees in a working process that is as close to the actual workflow as possible.
The Academy opens up the possibility of creating a "quality loop". Leagues and federations can form their own library of clips with controversial moments, which can be used in the "Academy" to improve the skills of the referees, train new personnel or analyze the individual actions of each member of the VAR team.
The Tajikistan Football Federation purchased a videoReferee®-8F VAR set to equip a VAR Van which will be used at the matches of the Tajikistan Higher League. The system records the signals from up to 8 cameras, provides the video referees with all the necessary tools to quickly analyze the moment and output the referee interface to the Referee Review Area (RRA), and is integrated with the referee intercom system.
To date, the theoretical training and technical intensive on the system have been successfully completed. Next, VARs, AVARs and replay operators will use the Academy to practice their skills, automate procedures and work through as many different types of controversial moments as possible. The Academy will also be used in training and certification stages, outlined in the Implementation Assistance and Approval Program (IAAP).
The Tajikistan Football Federation and slomo.tv still have a lot of work ahead, but everyone is optimistic. The VAR system in Tajikistan is scheduled to be fully implemented by the second half of the Tajikistan Higher League season.
