AIFF Media Team

Kolkata: AFC-AIFF Match Commissioner’s Workshop kicked off in Kolkata yesterday (April 1, 2017) and the two-day long workshop concluded today.

Mr. P Sivakumar, an eminent FIFA & AFC Match Commissioner from Singapore is the instructor of the workshop where 20 AIFF-appointed Match Commissioners, including 5 AFC-appointed Match Commissioners from India are invited to attend the workshop to grab the minute details of the match operation from the seasoned personnel himself.

Mr. Subrata Dutta, Senior Vice President, All India Football Federation, opened the session this morning with his good wishes for the Match Commissioners and Mr. Sivakumar himself.

“Match Commissioners are the eyes & ears of a football match organisation, hence the role is very crucial. The successful completion of a match depends not only on the organisers but the Match Commissioner also”, Mr. Dutta mentioned.

He added more, “It’s like the third team playing the game. A football match is not a 90-minute affair, it’s beyond that and the onus is on the Match Commissioner to run the show smoothly.”

Mr. P. Sivakumar mentioned, “I’m pleased to have contributed to this workshop by sharing the best practices and Matchday organisation with the AIFF Match Commissioners. I’m really pleased to convey which I could realise over the two-day workshop that they are truly interactive and they have shown the proactiveness in the interactive discussions to find out the solution.”

“The primary goal of the workshop was the stadium inspection exercise and observing the Hero I-League match between Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC where the AIFF Match Commissioners were given a task to conduct the stadium inspection as per the AFC matchday checklist and to report on their observations using the AFC Mach commissioner’s report”, Mr. Sivakumar concluded on being asked how the sessions would hone the AIFF Match Commissioners’ skills.

“Mr. Sivakumar is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to Match organisation and the two-day workshop will definitely help the AIFF Match Commissioners to get the insights of the Match organisation and eventually it’ll take our match organisation one step higher”, Mr. Sunando Dhar, CEO, I-League commented.

“On the behalf of AIFF, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all the luck to the budding Match Commissioners and the existing ones as well. Your success is the success of the country”, Mr. Dutta concluded.

The Indian Match Commissioners who attended the workshop is noted below:

Adlear D’cruz, Arunava Bhattacharya, Anil Kumar P, Balasusubramanium B, Lalrawngbawla, Binod Kr. Singh, Anthony John D’Costa, Dinesh Nair, Sanjay Kumar, Goculdas S. Nagvenkar, Jayendra Nagvenkar, Michael Andrews, Prince Rufus, Ratheesh Kumar V, Ravishankar J, Shirzad Bhatena, Palliri Sujesh Rajan, Walter Edward Pereira, Suvrat Suresh Thatte and Akshay Rohatgi.