ASSISTANT referee Kavitesh Behari said the crucial decisions he made at the Courts Inter District Championship (IDC) final between Ba and Suva were the highlights of his budding match officiating career.
And the 26-year-old is adamant he made the right calls despite disagreement from the Ba soccer officials and fans which resulted in the abandonment of the showdown at Govind Park on Sunday night.
Behari came under spotlight after giving referee Andrew Achari the green light to award the controversial goal from Suva's Waisake Navunigasau.
According to him, the ball had completely crossed the goal line before Ba goalkeeper Jone Ralulu pulled it back which is attested by the series of pictures ran by The Fiji Times on yesterday's edition.
Behari said he then raised his flag to notify Achari that "something had happened" before running along the touch line towards the centre spot signifying the goal had been scored.
According to the FIFA Law 6 of the Assistant Referees "when a goal has been scored and the ball appears to be still in play, the assistant referee must first raise his flag to attract the referee's attention then continue with the normal goal procedure of running quickly 25-30 metres along the touchline towards the half way line."
Fiji Football Referees Association president Mahendra Singh, who was also the referees' assessor in the final match, justified Behari's ruling saying he followed the normal procedure.
"I understand that some people are querying why Kavitesh raised his flag. They claim he gave offside," Singh said.
"The question of offside does not arise as ball was received from a corner kick and there is no offside as such. He acted correctly as stipulated by FIFA in regards to goals scored under such circumstances."
According to FIFA rules, "there is no offside offence if a player receives ball directly from a goal kick, a throw in and a corner kick."
Behari also defended his call which resulted in Ba's goal being disallowed in the opening spell of the extra time, saying two Ba players were in an offside position.
"I had two crucial decisions to make and both of them were correct," the national long distance athlete said.
Kavitesh, who has been officiating for Fiji FA since 2005, comes from a refereeing family with his father Suresh and brothers Amitesh and Ravitesh Behari been Fiji FA referees before.