By Gamini Perera
India’s versatile mid-fielder, Jo Paul Ancheri was named as India’s ‘footballer of the year-2001’, while the Maldivian striker, Ali Shiham won the ‘Footballer of the year-2001’, in the Maldives.

East Bengal, reportedly, made Ancheri the highest-paid player in India, when he signed for FC Kochin.

The 1994, ‘Player of the year’, Ancheri, proved the Kolkata club’s faith in him was not misplaced when Jo netted seven times in his first seven games, before injury temporarily sidelined the star.

Despite his problems, Ancheri played through the pain barrier during India’s qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup, scoring twice in their 3-3 drawn fixture with Yemen and also netting in a 73rd. minute winner to spare the team’s blushes against lowly Brunei.

Top-scorer

Ali Shiham was named as the Maldives ‘Footballer of 2001’ after the Valencia forward finished the season as top scorer with 24 goals, one of which was for the national team in their stunning 6-0 defeat of Cambodia in the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers.

It was striker, Shiham’s second ‘Player of the Year’ award, having picked up the accolade in 1999 when he was with Hurriyya, the club of his home island of Hura.

Bujsaim heads Asian refs.

Ali Bujsaim is set to make his third appearance at the World Cup, following the appointment of five referees and seven assistants from Asia for this years’ World Cup final.

The experienced UAE official, who referred the final of last year’s FIFA Confederation Cup, took charge of the 1998 semi-final between Brazil and the Netherlands, as well as the third place play-off between Sweden and Bulgaria at USA-1994.

The 12 officials, from the largest contingent of Asian referees at a World Cup, a significant increase from the four referees and five assistants at France-1998.

"I am happy with the number of referees picked from Asia. Those selected are the best from Asia and show good representation from all regions," said General Farouk Bouzo, Chairman of the AFC Referees Committee.

"We had facts and figures to show the performances at FIFA tournaments. It was not hard to convince the FIFA Referees Committee as the members are well aware of how much progress of our referees have made over the past years," said Gen. Bouzo.

The Asian officials will join the rest of their World Cup counterparts at a seminar in Seoul this month. This 3-day event was to discuss topical refereeing issues, including tackling from behind players’ excessive use of force and how to recognise and punish the feigning of fouls. The chosen officials were also expected to undergo medical and ‘must pass’, a stringent FIFA fitness test.

Following are the Referees from Asia to officiate at the World Cup finals-2002 in Japan/Korea.

Referees:

Ali Bujsaim (UAE), Toru Kamikawa (Japan), Kim Young-joo (Korea), Lu Jun (China) and Manne Saad Kamel (Kuwait).

Assistant referees:

Ali Al Traifi (KSA), Mat Lazim Awang Hamat (MAS), Haider Koleit (LEB.), Krishnan Visvanathan (SIN), Awni Hassounesh (JOR), Mohammed Seed (MDV), and Sankar Komaleeswaran (IND).

Intriguing friendless

Co-hosts, Japan and Korea Republic have lined-up a series of intriguing friendlies in preparation for this years’s World Cup, with Korea’s final warm-up match against, the World champions, France the pick of the bunch.

Korea, will be keen to avenge the 0-5 mauling when they played at last year’s FIFA Federations Cup in Deagu.

Like Korea, Japan also have a full-fixture card. In addition to defending their KIM Cup title against Slovakia and Honduras, the Asian Cup champions will test their mettle in a mouth-watering clash with 28-time Spanish champions, Real Madrid at the Barnabeu Stadium.

The schedule of Saudi Arabia, Asia’s fourth World Cup representative, includes a home tie against 1992 European Champions Denmark.

However, a big part of the Saudis’ preparations for their third consecutive finals appearance is next month’s Arab Cup in Kuwait.

Korea will meet China on April 24, 2002, whose own preparations began in mid-February at the Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong.

Sri Lanka 27

Sri Lanka is in Asian Rank No. 127 in the FIFA World Ranking (Asia).

Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, China, UAE, Thailand, Indonesia, Bahrain, Malyasia, Singapore, India and Hong Kong are ahead of Sri Lanka in the latest ranking list issued by the AFC.

Sri Lanka is ahead of Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan.