GMCS helped to scale the RFU judges appointment system
GMCS helped to scale the RFU judges appointment system
17 November 2022

GMCS helped to scale the RFU judges appointment system

GMCS has completed scaling up the system of appointing referees for the Russian Football Union (RFU) to the First and Second National Football Leagues (FNL). The system began to process data on more matches and referees intersecting between the leagues. Besides, additional algorithms for calculating the rating of referees have been added to the system.

The RFU Arbitrators module is part of the "RFU. Digital platform", which takes into account dozens of parameters, including the referee's rating, the complexity of the match, etc. The recommendation model was created by the RFU together with the Sports Research Laboratory of the Higher School of Economics, and GMCS performed the design and development of a scaling solution for the First and Second leagues of the FNL. Referees are assigned to matches according to the Gale-Shapley algorithm, which provides the optimal assignment for each match. The system helps the refereeing department with the appointment of arbitrators based on objective data.

The microservice web application centrally stores all information about the activities of referees, as well as match ratings. The system not only automatically collects data from the internal RFU systems, from the Polar website, but also allows users to manually enter the data necessary for the work of the recommendation model, calculation and visualization of indicators, taking into account the uniform distribution of the load on the arbitrators.

The system also analyzes the referees' cards, which contain information about the judges - personal data, contacts, information from other modules (appointments, rating, etc.), current status, role, level of competitions to which the judge is admitted, information about disciplinary violations and other indicators affecting the quality of refereeing.

"For almost 3 years, we have been creating digital products together with GMCS. As part of the digital platform, this is not the first module that we are working on with GMCS. In the near future we will be able to announce new projects implemented jointly. As for the system of appointing referees, we plan to improve the recommendation model and continue further automation of the activities of the judiciary," comments Dmitry Fedorov, Head of the Digital Technologies Department of the Russian Football Union.

Cooperation between the RFU and GMCS began in 2020 with the introduction of an online training system for judges based on the Russian WebSoft HCM platform (at that time Webtutor). The platform helps referees to raise the level of knowledge according to uniform standards, and also makes education in the field of football accessible. More than 3,000 people from more than 50 regions of the Russian Federation have received a certificate of the organizer of mass football thanks to the educational platform. 

"Together with the Department of Digital Technologies of the RFU, we quickly realize the customer's needs. This approach allows you to simultaneously conduct several diverse projects: from the idea, the selection of the technological stack to the development and launch takes about 3 months on average. We use advanced methods and approaches to development. For example, to collect historical data on the training activities of referees, we configured a software robot, which significantly reduced the time required to fill the system with data," said Maria Venediktova, Vice President of GMCS.


About RFU

The Russian Football Union (RFU) is an all–Russian public organization. The RFU's activities are aimed at the development and popularization of football in the Russian Federation. The RFU is the only organization recognized by FIFA and UEFA that provides control over the development of football in Russia.


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