AIFF's Chief Refereeing Officer Trevor Kettle Claims Standard Of Referees In India Improving

Poor refereeing in the Indian Super League (ISL) has long been a source of frustration for many coaches, but the national federation's top officer Trevor Kettle on Sunday claimed that the standard of referees in the country is "improving in many competencies". Several coaches of ISL clubs, mostly foreign, have in the past talked about the poor standard of refereeing in the top-tier league and even the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) President Kalyan Chaubey had expressed concerns on the matter a few months back.

The most recent incident involved two controversial referee decisions during the Kerala Blasters vs Hyderabad FC match in Kochi a few days ago. But Kettle, the AIFF's Chief Refereeing Officer (CRO), highlighted the improvements made by the Indian referees when asked about his views in the context of several past and present foreign coaches expressing disappointment on the refereeing standard at the ISL.

"The standards of referees in India are improving in many competencies, including growing confidence to take stronger disciplinary action, improved fitness standards to maintain pace with the game, less prone to being deceived by players simulating or exaggerating, and allowing more game flow," Kettle told PTI.

"The accuracy of Key Match Incident (KMI) decisions is now being accurately monitored as the prime indicator of refereeing performance with a reach target of 85%. Interestingly, the results of the pre-season Head Coach survey on referees, on average, expected an accuracy of 82.5% without the aid of VAR technology.

"At present, the KMI % accuracy fluctuates around this level but would improve to approximately 97% with VAR (Video Assistant Referee) implementation." There is no VAR in the ISL and the