LAHORE, Sept 25: President Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has asked the PFF Operation Branch and Pakistan Football Referees Association (PFRA) to provide justifiable football referees for FIFA List 2009 following a physical and written test at Karachi and Lahore.

All FIFA, National (Grade I and II) referees in Pakistan attended the test.

After short listing the candidates and providing the names of 16 referees thought to be deserving of becoming FIFA referees in 2009, President PFRA Qazi Mohammad Asif and Secretary-General Ahmed Ali said that “FIFA and AFC are giving their full support to the PFF and we should provide them with our best referees.”

“The work of these officials would be constantly monitored and it is mandatory that each of them shows consistent high-level performance,” said Faisal while adding that the new fitness test is designed to test the physical fitness and mental strength of the referees.

“The quality of the game also plays a major role in the development of refereeing. No referee in the world can claim to be the best in the world. One can only become a good referee when one makes the least number of mistakes,” he added.

The FIFA List 2008 included eight Pakistanis, namely, Asif bin Younus, Imtiaz Ali Shah, Jahangir Khan, Shafaat Habib, Waheed Murad, Muhammed Ali, Muhammad Iqbal Jr and Muhammad Saleem Khan.

This time Faisalabad-born referee Rana Naseer Ahmed, who was in the FIFA List from 2002-2006, is hoping to make a comeback while others in the current list, at the threshold of becoming FIFA referees are Iqrar Hussain, Shahid Ismail, Habibullah, Khurram Shahzad, Abdul Sattar Badini, Shahid Rasheed and Shahid Hussain.

Faisal, who is also a member of the AFC Disciplinary Committee along with being the Federal Minister for Environment added: “Referees are like a team in an event. During my visit to Dhaka for the AFC Challenge Football Cup 2006, the 20 referees in action there were called the 17th team and they were considered the best match officials in Asia. All had cleared the newly-introduced referee fitness test and were found to be in good physical condition.”—Agencies