Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dushanbe: Security officers from clubs in the Tajik League and from the Tajikistan Football Federation together with stakeholders such as stadium managers and police officers have learnt about best practices in a stadium and security workshop organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Thursday’s workshop was carried out under the AFC League Development Programme, Project Tajikistan in the country’s capital Dushanbe.
Alisher Urunov, Director General of the national league, welcomed the participants and thanked the AFC for the initiative to offer training in specific activity areas, with an AFC media and communications workshop having been organised the previous day, under the same programme.
The AFC club licensing regulations were introduced in 2015 under the AFC League Development Programme. The regulations require clubs to have a dedicated security officer. With the clubs in the Tajik League having appointed these staff members, the AFC stadium and security workshop offered them the opportunity to learn about their role and tasks in their clubs as well as AFC competitions.
The objective of the session was to inform the participants about stadium and safety requirements under AFC club licensing and their role in ensuring safety at football matches. The workshop was attended by 19 participants. The issues discussed included decision-making in security matters and the relevant AFC and FIFA regulations.
Specific security situations in club and national team matches in Asia and around the world were looked at in detail through videos and case studies, with different categories of risk situations identified. The role of the security officer in these situations and the impact of other related match operations areas, such as ticketing and access control, were also studied. The importance of planning, risk assessment, communication and coordination and contingency plans were underlined throughout the workshop.
The AFC will now discuss further with the Football Federation of Tajikistan with a view to launching a development programme in the country for stadium and security, as is the case in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Islamic Republic of Iran, where similar workshops have been carried out previously.