FIFA Referee Chief Pierluigi Collina has been invited to India by AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey to help improve the standard of refereeing in the country. The official social media pages of the AIFF have revealed plans for a two-day workshop later this year.
Chaubey met the Referee Chief at the 74th FIFA Congress in Thailand, where the two discussed the plans for the workshop.
AIFF invites FIFA Referee Chief Pierluigi Collina for workshop
๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐๐ถ๐ด๐ถ ๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ.
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) May 18, 2024
AIFF President @kalyanchaubey had the honour of meeting FIFA Referee Chief Pierluigi Collina at 74th FIFA Congress, Thailand.
Keen to improveโฆ pic.twitter.com/HnvrHDqm27
The country currently has an 18-member Elite Match Officials panel, but doesn’t use VAR like other leagues across the world. Plans for implementing the technology have been discussed by the AIFF, but it will take until 2025 or 2026 to facilitate the complete installation of the system.
Improving the quality of refereeing across the various leagues in the country would not doubt improve the standard of play. And guidance from the team at FIFA should help the Indian officials become better at their skills.
This marks yet another instance where FIFA is directly engaging with the AIFF to help boost Indian football after visits from Arsene Wenger to help build youth academies and president Gianni Infantino himself to endorse the Santosh Trophy.
