UEFA appointed referee Nikolai Balakin to officiate the group round matches of the prestigious tournament.
For a quarter of a century, UEFA has not invited Ukrainian referees to work in Champions League matches. And finally the ice was broken. The group round game will be historic, with Spanish Real Sociedad hosting Austrian Salzburg.
According to UEFA’s official website, a Ukrainian team of referees led by Nikolai Balakin was appointed for this match.
Alexander Berkut and Dmitry Zaporozhenko will help him on the lines, and Yaroslav Kozik will be the fourth referee.
The Pole Tomasz Kwiatkowski will manage the VAR system in the match, and his assistant will be the Turk Alper Ulusoy.
Let’s remember that the last time Ukrainian referees worked in the main European football club tournament was on September 16, 1998. Then, in the game in Bilbao between the local Athletic and Norwegian Rosenborg, the resident of Simferopol Vasily Melnichuk, who now works as an observer of the arbitration of the UAF, acted as the chief referee.
Earlier it was reported that Shakhtar and Antwerp in the Champions League will be judged by a referee, where the Ukrainian teams only lost in official matches.
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Source: korrespondent
I am William Jackson and I have a passion for sports journalism. With over 3 years of experience in the industry, I have worked in a variety of roles to improve the quality and accuracy of sports news coverage. As an author at Athletistic, I specialize in covering football news and providing comprehensive analysis for fans around the world.
