The France vs. Uruguay match will be supervised by Yuichi Nishimura of Japan.[break]
When four referees and eight assistant referees from Asia will be working in South Africa, Nepali referees will be at home lamenting their misfortunes and remembering the successes of their predecessors.
FIFA Referee Shyam Shrestha, who passed away in a plane crash in 1992, had worked in the matches of the Women’s World Cup 1991 in China. FIFA Assistant Referee Shyam Lama was once among the top 10 Asian Assistant Referees. Many Nepali referees have umpired at World Cup qualifiers.
Such success fact sheets are now taken as once-upon-a-time fairytales. Nepali referees have not officiated at any international matches since 2006.
“There was a rift in the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) after 2006, and we couldn’t conduct national league matches and tournaments. As the dispute continued and escalated, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) stopped nominating Nepali referees for international matches,” said Lalit Krishna Shrestha, ANFA Vice-President. “We also couldn’t focus on referee development because of the dispute,” he added.
“ANFA has no policy, program and structure on referee development,” complained Surendra Shikhrakar, a senior referee. “ANFA is our guardian and it should lobby for our nomination in international tournaments,” he added.
Shikhrakar does feel that Nepali referees are no less capable of handling World Cup matches. “We’ve proved it during the World Cup qualifiers in the past,” he claims.
However, not only Nepalis but also Asian referees are criticized more in FIFA tournaments, in comparison to others. Taking all the criticism in consideration, AFC is addressing referee development issues in their program called Project Future.
“Big fish swallow small fish, and Europeans dominate over Asian referees,” Shikhrakar commented on the criticism. “Graham Poll cautioned the same player three times before sending him off in the 2006 World Cup. If it was done by any Asian referee, it would’ve been blown out of proportion,” said he.
On the other hand, AFC and FIFA nominate referees from countries considering the participation of their national teams in international tournaments.
“Since Nepal isn’t participating and playing international friendly matches very often, our referees are getting fewer chances,” said Shikhrakar, himself a FIFA referee.
An ANFA official, wishing to maintain his anonymity, said that the Association has no programs and plans for referees.
“The National League is in the last stage but we’re yet to decide on the pay-scale of referees for a league match,” he said.
Including a woman umpire, there are five FIFA referees in Nepal. Likewise, there are eight FIFA Assistant Referees, including two women.
Meanwhile, even though Nepali referees are not getting chances to work in international tournaments organized by AFC and FIFA, ANFA President Ganesh Thapa continues to enjoy his portfolio of an AFC executive and Referee Committee member.
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