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Sankar’s career comes to an end

Special Correspondent

— FILE PHOTO

K. Sankar.

CHENNAI: All good things come to an end and so does this fine story in Indian football.

FIFA assistant referee Komaleeswaran Sankar, till date India’s only official to do duty in a World Cup (he officiated at the 2002 Korea-Japan edition), will turn 46 on Tuesday and that officially ends his international refereeing career.

However the world body retains such referees in its panel until the end of the year.

“So even though I officially retire from the FIFA panel, I will hopefully get a few more international match postings before bowing out on December 31,” Sankar said here on Monday.

Bright chapter

An Indian Bank clerk, Sankar’s career has been one of the brightest chapters in Indian football history.

Sankar took keen interest in officiating matches and the 1995 SAF Games in India provided him the break at the international level.

Impressing AFC officials, Sankar’s career graph rose from there touching the pinnacle with the World Cup 2002 in Japan and Korea.

The Sydney Olympics, Bangkok Asian Games (he did duty in the final also), Confederation Cup, Junior world cup, under-21 world cup, Asian championship are some of the highlights of his 14-year international career, the longest for an Indian official in the FIFA panel.

He had done duty in over 250 international matches, the last being in May in an Asian Challenge Cup fixture in Kyrgyzstan

Starting an academy

Sankar hopes to start an academy to aid Indian refereeing reach world standards. Towards this end, he has already done a referees instructors course from England’s FA.

Right through, Sankar admits his employer has been his big support and he is hoping that in the seasons to come he would get a sports-related career posting in the Bank to help utilise his services better.

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