Referees put through their paces

KOCHI: The synthetic turf at the Regional Sports Centre, Kadavanthra, witnessed a unique test on Tuesday. As many as 21 former national panel  football referees, two of them international referees, were put through their paces by three of the country’s best known officials. Asian Football Confederation Referees’ Education administrator Michael  Andrews, AFC Elite referees’ assessor and the only Indian to officiate in the FIFA World Cup K Shankar and All-India Football Federation Referees Department head Gautam Kher evaluated the aspirant referees’ instructors as part of a three-day camp organised by the All-India Football Federation.The Potential Instructor Evaluation for retired FIFA / national referees had begun on Saturday with a screening  session of 35 former referees who turned up for the programme.The camp elicited good response from the participants.“It was a wonderful experience,” said K Surendran, one of only two referees from Kerala to find a place among the participants. “We were given various tests related to the functions of a referee. From video footage, we had to judge the type of intervention necessary on the part of the referee and also to identify the mistakes that the referee in the footage had made,” he said.Meanwhile, Michael Andrews said the participants were aware of what was expected of them.“They were enthusiastic during the camp. We will submit our evaluation report to the AIFF. It is up to the AIFF to name the next batch of referees instructors,” he added.