Mumbai-born Rahul Eric D’sa has become the first Indian to successfully graduate from the AFC Project Future Referees programme.

The young Bangalore-based referee completed the two-year development program by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the best young referees below the age of 25 from all across Asia.

The AFC Project Future Referees programme is divided into four courses and the referees have to make the cut with each passing course. The four courses were the 1st Development Course (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / February 2012), the 2nd Development Course (Male, Maldives / November 2012), the 3rd Development Course (Fukuoka, Japan / March 2013) and the Final Development Course (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / October 2013).

The AFC Project Future Referee Batch 2011 successfully graduated yesterday after the rigorous development course of two years. A total of nine young referees who made it into all four development courses organised in the span of two years were from nine different member associations of the AFC.

The candidates were selected through a pool of more than 100 aspiring referees from the AFC Football Festival organised at different regions of Asia in 2011. Rahul was selected as the lone Indian for the AFC Project Future Referees programme at the AFC Festival of Football in Yazd, Iran in 2011.

A total of 20 made it into the selection course organised in Kuala Lumpur and only 13 made it into the 1st Development Course which followed with 12 participants in the 2nd Development Course held in the Maldivian capital Male.

Only nine participants made into the 3rd Development Course in Fukuoka and all of those participants successfully graduated from the course after completing the Final Development Course which concluded yesterday.

The AFC Project Future Referees graduates are:
Zhang Cheng (China), Rahul Eric D’sa (India), Zaid Thamer (Iraq), Takuma Matsuda (Japan), Kim Woo Sung (Korea Republic), Khalid Salleh Alturais (Saudi Arabia), Hanna Hattab (Syria), Chen Hsin Chuan (Chinese Taipei), Nayim Qosimov (Uzbekistan)