Four FIFA courses allotted to India

New Delhi: World football`s governing body FIFA has allotted four courses to India for overall development of the country's referees.

Amit Ranjan Dev on Monday chaired the All India Football Federation's Referee Committee meeting, which was held at the Football House.

The committee appreciated FIFA's approval for four courses for further development of Indian referees. The four courses - FIFA/MA course for referees, FIFA/MA course for assistant referees, FIFA/MA course for RA/RI and FIFA/MA course for women referees will be held in 2014.

"The courses provide us an unique opportunity for Indian referees to further upgrade themselves. As a chairman of the referee's committee, I feel proud and take allotment of the FIFA courses as a compliment.

"Usually, one course is allotted to a member association in a calendar year but the fact that we have been granted four courses explains it all," Dev stated. "Ours is a professional structure at the moment. The lesser number of complaints in the I-League speaks about the competence of our supervisors. I credit it to the younger generation of referees," Dev said.

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das, Pradip Nag, Gulab Singh Chauhan, Mrinal Kanti Roy, Ravishankar J, Inayatullah Khan and Goutam Kar also attended the meeting. "One of the most important things which was discussed in the meeting was the delay in implementing the referee's structure by the state associations. I will take up the matter once again in AIFF`s executive committee meeting. The structure is critical in improving the overall refereeing standards in India," Das said.

The executive committee meeting is to be held on May 14. Furthermore, the committee also stressed on `Integrity in Sports' and stressed that all referees and other officials should be protected from bribery and/or other match manipulation offences. `Recognise, resist and report,' should be followed, the committee felt.

The Committee unanimously decided the evaluation process for all referee educators must continue to ensure quality control which can be enhanced by everyone's services.

The committee endorsed the introduction of yoga in referee's training, especially in the training methods of the Federation Cup. The committee also congratulated S Suresh for having been selected as AFC referees instructor.