How the Football Association of the Czech Republic launched Football TV in record time thanks to Freelo

Published: 29. November

In the FAČR they don't want to do things the same way all the time, they are trying to innovate and thus move Czech football forward. This requires management at the level of a large software company. Last year they managed to technically provide live streaming of matches at all levels using AI cameras, which, in their own words, would not have been possible without Freela.

At first glance, it may seem that there is nothing complicated about the project and process management of the FAČR - that it is mainly about the organisation of matches and a bit of education, which has been in place for years. But you couldn't be further from the truth. There are hundreds of organised competitions if you include the youngest age categories. Every competition must have scheduled matches, referees and delegates. There are financial and marketing processes involved.

What the FAČR does or order in the processes

The FAČR, as a member of FIFA and UEFA, is responsible for the organisation of all football competitions, both professional - Chance League and Chance National League (1st and 2nd league), and performance and amateur (3rd and 4th league, regional and district competitions, youth competitions). It also manages the running of the national teams, creates methodological processes and trains its members. „There are a lot of processes,“ concludes Hysek with a smile.

Previously, assignments came in different ways „from the world“

All of the above needs good technological support. Most things run on their own information system IS FAČR, which is currently undergoing an upgrade. They are trying to bring some order to it in terms of documentation and processes in terms of entering changes, where they are concentrating on business analytics. In order to unify it and maintain its familiarity. Previously, assignments came in different „from the world" and there was no control over them. So the software architecture might be in a little better shape.

The aim is to move the overall management of the FAČR with the help of Freela

An example of a project that has been successfully launched and is unparalleled is Football TV - live broadcasts of matches from the 3rd league and below, which are automated thanks to AI cameras and the interconnection of software systems.

Because of this, the FAČR has acquired AI cameras to record the match. Through the streaming service and the FAČR Information System, the matches with the player are displayed on the fotbal.cz website. and in the future also to the mobile app.

„The recordings serve not only for spectators, but also as educational material for coaches, players and referees. They can also be used with an electronic pencil," explains Hysek.

For new projects, Freelo won out over Jira and MS Planner by a landslide

For an extensive software development project, specifically upgrading the FAČR IS, they used Jira, as is common among programmers. They are staying with it for this project. However, for other projects, Jira proved too robust. People used it little and did not like to use it, so records were sometimes missing. For this reason, they were looking for another, more suitable tool.

Hýsek also tried Microsoft Planner for himself, but it lacked notifications and links. The row-only view was insufficient for larger projects. Additionally, as an Office 365 program, it required all users to be from the same domain, which was a problem with vendors.

Boarding the Freela was without loss of balloon

After a month, when the first serious activities took place in Freelo and it seemed that the tool made sense for the FAČR, they moved to the paid Business plan. So currently Freelo is phasing in 7 months. „We prefer to go gradually and slowly. I'm trying out the features myself first and thinking about how we'll all use them to make it as convenient and beneficial as possible. Only then do I bring in colleagues so that I don't burden them with the dead ends that can occur when implementing a new tool. “ says Hysek.

The reactions of the invited people were positive. Some suppliers were already familiar with Freelo, but even those who were new to it welcomed its use and quickly got used to it. Of course, there is always someone looking for reasons why something doesn't work, but with Freelo this happens minimally.

It was important to explain to people exactly what Freelo was for. Historically, there has already been one attempt to introduce Freelo. A few people still remember it. They said they just needed Teams. „But Teams solves different situations, it is not a tool for organizing work," Hýsek shares his experience.

Think about the structure so you don't burn a sure thing

As mentioned above, Jan Hýsek appreciates visual elements and cares about a uniform structure. Of course, every company works differently and you can get help with creating a structure during an online consultation (which was also the case for Jan) or more detailed cooperation in assisted onboarding. For inspiration, FACR shared his best practice.

1. Naming the project by organisational unit

Thanks to standardised naming, everyone is familiar with the projects.

Tip: See how to name your projects.

2. Ready uniform template

They have included all the essential information that the project should contain in the template. In the future, Hýsek is considering 2 versions - business and process, which would differ in the display, because sometimes it makes sense to use kanban as well.

Especially in larger companies where there is collaboration across teams, it is good to keep the same structure everywhere. Then, for example, the graphic designer has no problem in marketing projects, where he solves the design and content of the banner, as well as in developer projects, where he solves their deployment on the web.

3. Status labels and custom fields

The FAČR is trying different ways to mark the state of the task. One option is labels, which you can create freely. However, they are not limited to a specific project, but are in all of them, which can be confusing in large quantities and is not so convenient for the FAČR.

Karl's tip: Yeah, we're aware of that, we're working on limiting the labels to a specific project.

The second option they use is custom fields with a drop-down list of options that they define based on the states they want to monitor.

4. Saved filters

Jan has saved filters, e.g. by people and by week, which make it easier for him to browse stand-ups. For now, everyone has to set them up themselves.

Karl's tip: But we are also working on making each filter shareable with others.

5. Working with To-Do Sheets

The meaningful organization of tasks into To-Do sheets is essential for a company to work well with Freelo, so Hysek paid due attention to it.

1. Most Used To-Do Sheets Top

   In the line view, it has worked well for the FAČR to organize their To-Do lists according to how often they use them. At the top, he put a summary of errors, making stand-ups easier.

2. Auxiliary To-Do Sheets

   It also uses the ”helper” To-Do list to give an overview of e.g. important project phases.

3. Setting permissions to To-Do lists - called Roles

   Some To-Do lists are set up purely for communication with a certain supplier, so it only gives access to relevant people and the rest of the To-Do list is not even seen. This is useful when things of a sensitive nature like invoicing are dealt with there.

4. To-do list with errors reported via email

   For the Football TV project, they are collecting feedback from users via email. Thanks to the consultation, it turned out that there is no need to rewrite it manually.

   Karl's tip: Tasks can be created by email directly into Freela. For the To-Do list, you generate an email address for users to write to, and each email is set up as a task in Freelo.

5. Auxiliary To-Do Sheets

   It also uses the ”helper” To-Do list to give an overview of e.g. important project phases.

In 500 days the FAČR has created

Without Freelo, the projects would not have happened

Freelo has a huge impact on projects in the FAČR. We managed to launch Football TV, which required coordination of several systems suppliers: web, IS, streaming service, AI cameras + internal people. „It was done in half the planned time thanks to Freelo, I'm sure." And the response so far has also been positive. We plan to roll Freelo out gradually where it makes sense.