Agencies
New Delhi
Indian refereeing received a significant boost as five more match officials were inducted into the FIFA International List of Match Officials for 2026.
Rachana Kamani of Gujarat was added to the FIFA list of women referees, while Ashwin Kumar (Puducherry) and Aditya Purkayastha (Delhi) earned their places among the men referees. Puducherry’s Muralitharan Pandurangan and Peter Christopher of Maharashtra were inducted as
assistant referees.
The inclusion of Ashwin Kumar and Aditya Purkayastha was complemented by their successful completion of the AFC Referee Academy course in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Rachana Kamani is currently undergoing the same AFC programme.
With these additions, India now has as many as 19 match officials on the FIFA list for 2026.
The Indian contingent on the FIFA International List of Match Officials 2026 includes eight referees Venkatesh R, Harish Kundu, Senthil Nathan Sekaran, Crystal John, Ashwin Kumar, Aditya Purkayastha, Ranjita Devi Tekcham and Rachana Hasmukhbhai Kamani. The assistant referees list features Vairamuthu Parasuraman, Sumanta Dutta, Arun Sasidharan Pillai, Ujjal Halder, Muralitharan Pandurangan, Dipesh Manohar Sawant, Sourav Sarkar, Christopher Peter, Riiohlang Dhar and Elangbam Debala Devi, while Vishal Mahendrabhai Vaja represents India
as a futsal referee.
