Turkish Football Federation and Türk Telekom, one of the pioneers of Turkey's digital development, expanded their technological cooperation. Türk Telekom, which has been supporting Turkish football for years, became the Technology Sponsor of Trendyol Super League. Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which started to be implemented in Trendyol Super League from the second half, took part as the first step of this cooperation.

TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi and Türk Telekom CEO Ümit Önal attended the signing ceremony held at Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities in Riva. At the ceremony where Semi-Automated Offside Technology was also introduced, TFF Deputy Presidents İbrahim Burkay, Mustafa Eröğüt, Alkın Kalkavan, Board Members Ali Düşmez, Hamit Altıntop, Cengiz Erdem, General Secretary Taner Senseven, MHK President Ahmet İbanoğlu, Türk Telekom officials, representatives of Super League clubs and press members also took part.

Giving a speech at the ceremony, TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi pointed out that Turkish Football Federation views sponsors not only within the framework of sponsorship, but also as business and solution partners. President Büyükekşi stated, "Türk Telekom, the leading brand of digital development in our country, continues to be a pioneer in the use of innovative technologies. We want to continue and expand our cooperation with Türk Telekom, which gave its name to eSuper League. The first step of our Super League Technology Sponsorship cooperation is with Semi-Automated Offside Technology. Today, we came together for the launch of Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which we promised to implement in the second half of Trendyol Super League 2023-2024 Season and which we started from matchday 20."

"It is applied only in Turkey and Italy in European leagues"

President Mehmet Büyükekşi underlined that they are working for the development of Turkish football and said, "We are pleased to introduce Semi-Automated Offside Technology into Turkish Football, which was successfully implemented in the last World Cup and UEFA Champions League, and which we launched in Trendyol Super League for the first time in Europe after Serie A."

"We started a digital revolution in Turkish football"

Emphasizing that current technologies and digitalization are indispensable elements in modern football, President Mehmet Büyükekşi claimed: "With the importance we give to digitalization as Turkish Football Federation, we have accelerated business processes by ensuring the digitalization of observer and representative reports and professional football player licenses in all leagues. In this way, time is saved. We have prevented the waste of effort. Now, we have started working to digitalize the licensing procedures of all amateur football players. Thus, we want to make the licensing procedures of all professional and amateur football players in our country digitally up to date."

"We want to bring the Digital Football Player Information System to Turkish football"

President Büyükekşi also stated that studies on digital football player information systems implemented in the infrastructures of developed football countries are currently in process and said, "Another project we are working on to implement is the digital football player information system that can be searched according to the positions and personal characteristics of football players all over Turkey, in every age. Our aim will be to bring them to football. One of our main goals is to provide a large pool of young football players to our National Team, which is one of the youngest and most successful national teams in Europe. We will continue to project the future of Turkish football in the long run with our new technologies and digitalization projects."

"The decision will be made within seconds"

President Mehmet Büyükekşi, who also thanked Türk Telekom, said, "With Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which reduces the decision time regarding offside from minutes to seconds, the quality of the game on the field will increase and the margin of error will be minimized. As well as playing an important role in introducing Semi-Automated Offside Technology to our football, I would like to thank Türk Telekom, which has made a great contribution to Turkish Football with their digital transformation, new technologies, strong fiber infrastructure and technology support for many years. I hope Semi-Automated Offside Technology will make a serious contribution to the development of Turkish football."

Video Assistant Referee Mustafa İlker Coşkun introduced the system

During the ceremony, Video Assistant Referee Mustafa İlker Coşkun made a presentation on Semi-Automated Offside Technology. Coşkun answered the questions of press members by giving detailed information about what Semi-Automated Offside Technology is, how it works and the duties of VAR referees in the system.

Player movements will be scanned from 29 different points

In Semi-Automated Offside Technology, images of the football players scanned from 29 different points of their skeletal systems through cameras in the stadiums will be simultaneously delivered to the VAR Center. With the assistance of Semi-Automated Offside Technology established with Türk Telekom's fiber internet infrastructure, as in VAR system, images of the position can be shared instantly with video assistant referees in Riva and referees on field.