KOLKATA: The All India Football Federation has launched India’s first-ever academy for women referees in Gopiballavpur in West Midnapore, West Bengal.
The academy, which was inaugurated by West Bengal Minister of Backwards Class Welfare Churamani Mahato on Monday, aims to “develop Indian women footballers interested in refereeing to top world class referees”.
Col Goutam Kar, AIFF’s head of Referees Department, admitted it was “dream come true”.
“This is the first-ever kind of academy exclusive for Women Referees in India. I am not aware if there is any similar project anywhere in Asia,” he stated. “Our aim is to continue producing more referees of Uvena’s (Fernandes) calibre and see some of them supervising World Cup matches,” he added.
Uvena is the first Indian woman assistant referee to have officiated in a World Cup final match when she did the honours at the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup final in Jordan.
Col. Kar added: “A lot of efforts have been put in place for refereeing development for men and now similar efforts are being made for Women referees development – more so in the backdrop of the development of women’s football in India, especially with the introduction of Indian Women League. We require more women referees now.”
