LAHORE, Jan 17: The world soccer ruling body has awarded eight referee and assistant referee badges for 2008 to Pakistani referees.

“The referees who receive a FIFA badge are entitled to officiate at FIFA and AFC fixtures, both at the club and international level,” said Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).

Shafaat Habib is a new entrant to the international refereeing list. He is the Army man to get a FIFA Badge. He joins Muhammed Ali, Muhammad Iqbal Jr, Saleem Khan and Waheed Murad as FIFA Assistant Referees while the three FIFA Referees from Pakistan are Asif Kiani, Imtiaz Ali Shah and Jahangir Khan.

FIFA has a policy of ongoing training for its referees to ensure that refereeing standards continue to improve and the laws of the game are applied the same way everywhere.—Agencies