Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has announced a ‘Referee Assessor Online Workshop’ for the first time in Pakistan football’s history.
The workshop will be conducted by FIFA referee instructor Suresh Srinivasan, and it is aimed at training referee assessors throughout the various districts and territories of Pakistan.
The purpose of the workshop is to build a network of referee assessors who will assess the performance of various referees in different parts of the country.
The All-Pakistan District Championship (APDC) is an ongoing tournament in numerous parts of the country. PFF Normalization Committee (NC) Chairperson Haroon Malik said in a recent interview that over 800 matches have been played in the APDC in the last few months, which means that 800 performances of the referees needed to be monitored.
The Referee Assessor workshop will help improve the standard of refereeing in the country, as an international standard assessor will train the professionals. These professionals can then represent Pakistan overseas, once they reach the levels required by the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and FIFA.
PFF NC’s main mandate was to hold elections in the country. It came into being because Pakistan’s Supreme Court played the role of a third party, which FIFA doesn’t allow, during the previous Chairman elections which resulted in FIFA banning the federation.
Haroon Malik’s tenure ends in March 2024, but he’ll likely get an extension to complete the district, provincial, and federation elections.