The five-day FIFA MA Referees Course organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) ended successfully at the Red Fox Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi on Saturday. FIFA Referee Instructor Farkhad Abdullaev from Uzbekistan and Malaysia’s Ahmed Khalidi Supian were the Course Co-ordinators.

“This was the topmost Course for Elite Referees. The same instructions and guidelines taught to Referees Officiating in the FIFA World Cup Brasil 2014 were taught to 30 Indian Referees,” Abdullaev told AIFF Media.

“We wanted the participants to update their knowledge and tried to deliver the latest guidelines and teaching materials from FIFA. We were not here to teach but share our knowledge which we gained both from FIFA and the AFC,” he added.

“We stressed on the off-side rule, handball situations and severity of incidents along with the Referee’s technique and management of the game,” Abdullaev informed.

“I am very much overwhelmed with the response of the participants. They were active and disciplined all throughout and their commitment was seen to be believed. The enthusiasm in their eyes said about it all. Usually you don’t get such Courses through any other source as only a FIFA Instructor can conduct such a Course,” he stated.

“FIFA usually organizes one Course per Member Association in one Calendar Year. But we consider India to be a big Continent. Hence, there have been many FIFA Courses in India in the recent past,” he uttered.

Gautam Kar, Head of Referees, AIFF thanked Abdullaev and Khalidi for their support and “down to Earth attitude.”

“I need to thank them for going all out to educate our Referees. This will help Indian Referees mature faster and reach their goal of supervising matches at the highest level,” he pronounced.

The Course comprised of both theory and practical sessions. The 30 participants also had to appear in fitness tests.

“My colleague Khalidi conducted the practical sessions and implemented the FIFA 11 Plus Programme which would help the Referees stay away from injuries. The participants were demonstrated all the latest exercises for injury prevention. We even had match situations – eg, on Friday (July 4), we enacted penalty area incidents. It was all about integrated training.”

Abdullaev also had a special word of praise the manner AIFF organised the Course. “Over the last six months I have travelled to over 16 Countries and I need to mention that this was the first time I saw Referees being looked after well. I need to congratulate AIFF for that. Kar and his Assistant Anup Kumar have been of immense help,” he concluded.

Rizwan-ul-Haq, P Basker and Chaitali Paul were the Assistants to the two FIFA Instructors.

The list of 30 participants stayed as follows:
Rahul Gupta, Umesh Bora (both from Delhi), Tejas Nagvenkar, Anthony Simoes, Maria Rebello (all from Goa), Pranjal Banerjee, Ranjit Bakshi, Ajit Datta, Tanmoy Dhar, Debashish Mandi (all from West Bengal), Chunnu Singh, OP Thakur, Suchit Toppo (all from Jharkhand), Fasil Salahudeen, Santosh Kumar (both from Kerala), B Balasubramanium (Karnataka), Rabichandra Singh, Priyobrata Singh, Lajit Meetei (all from Manipur), Manohar Quereshi (Madhya Pradesh), A Rowan (SSCB), R Ventakesh, P Vairamuthu, CR SRikrishna, Jamal Mohd (all from Tamil Nadu), Raktim Saha (Tripura), Pratap Singh (Uttarakhand), Rahul D’Sa, Crystal John (WIFA)

(Report & Picture courtesy AIFF Media)