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The Cork man, the son of FAI Senior Development Officer of the Elite Referees Pat Kelly, has been a referee for the past 10 years.
Among his highlights to date are officiating at a Uefa under-17 championship semi-final between France and Spain, an under-21 international between England and Italy in 2002 and, in 2003, the FAI Carlsberg Cup final between St Patrick’s Athletic and Longford Town.
Both officials have also taken charge of Uefa Champions League matches in the past, with Kelly the man in the middle when KF Tirana of Albania met Georgia’s Dinamo Tbilisi in 2003, and Stokes officiating at last summer’s qualifier between HB Torshavn of the Faroe Islands and FC WIT of Georgia.
Pat Kelly, the Irish referees chief, was thrilled at the promotions of two elite referees.
He said: “This represents a great move forward for Irish refereeing. It means that what we set out to achieve in 2001 has been achieved.
"I am particularly delighted as both Alan and Ian have graduated from the FAI’s School of Excellence programme for new referees, which was introduced five years ago with the intention of fast-tracking the best of the young referees from around the country.
"This system has received much praise from Uefa and other associations have adopted similar programmes. We are ahead of schedule with our plans to increase the standing of Irish referees within Europe.
"I congratulate Alan and Ian, they make huge sacrifices for their refereeing career and their professionalism, fitness and refereeing ability set the standard for our referees to follow."