India’s one of the well-known referees Pranjal Banerjeee’s dream of ensuring a place in the panel for the 2026 men’s World Cup received an expected blow. 

He is not on the list of 74 match officials (35 referees and 39 assistant referees including two standby nominees for each position) for the crucial Asian Cup next year. Naturally, his dream of ensuring a place in the panel of the 2026 World Cup also will not be fulfilled.

The key reason behind the omission of India’s best football referees including Pranjal is that they do not have the license of VAR (Video Assistant Referees).

Pranjal had an opportunity to appear before the VAR examination held in Saudi after being selected along with two other Asian referees in the under-17 Asian Cup. But he could not go. Now, he is setting focus on the World Cup qualifier of the Asian Zone, the first leg match in round one between Myanmar and Macau, scheduled to be held on 12th October in Yangon. He is already 37 years old and it is difficult to maintain the fitness level at the highest level which can help Pranjal to appear for the VAR examination and earn the opportunity to be on the referees' panel for the 2030 World Cup.

Significantly, none of the referees except Singapore and Thailand from Southeast Asia have been paneled for the continental tournament, starting on 12th January 2024 in Qatar. Among the 74 referees, selected by the AFC, six women match officials are there who would make their debut in the competition. 

Explaining the omission of Indian match officials, former referees' director Gautam Kar who is now working as the referees' consultant in Bangladesh stated, "It is unfortunate that in India no effort has been taken to introduce VAR. Firstly you have to install it. Then you have to educate the match officials to operate the system. Installing the infrastructure to set up VAR is hugely expensive, a matter of a few crores. Still, as a referee, you cannot move to the highest level unless you have the VAR license. The AIFF's marketing partner FSDL which runs the ISL should have taken the initiative on the matter."

Incidentally, FSDL had committed Rs 10 crores in December 2021 for the development of referees for the next three years. It is unknown whether FSDL has invested the amount at all. 

Then in his first referees committee meeting on 22nd November last year, the AIFF's chief refereeing officer (CRO) Trevor Kettle stressed the need to implement modern tools like VAR to improve officiating standards in Indian football.

The Englishman had said that VAR technology was needed to keep the home-grown referees abreast of modern technology without which plum assignments would be hard to come by.

The AIFF has flirted with the idea of VAR and remains keen but has been put off by its huge costs (extending to several crores for a season), which only leading footballing nations in Europe can afford for their domestic leagues.

Indian referees have earlier been ignored by FIFA for the 2022 U-17 Women's World Cup, which India hosted, and the men's Qatar World Cup. Though there is no written rule, it is an unwritten policy followed by FIFA and the AFC.

The only domestic matches where VAR was available were in the Santosh Trophy final and third-place match and the final, which were held in Saudi Arabia. But two officials from the Saudi Arabian Football Federation presided over the game.