The UCL Group Stage Match will be Refereed by a Ukrainian Team of Referees for the First Time in 25 Years
On November 29th in San Sebastian, Spain, the fifth round match of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League Group D will take place between local team "Real Sociedad" and Austrian side "Salzburg." Notably, this match will be officiated by a Ukrainian referee team, marking the first time in 25 years. The relevant information is available on the UEFA website.
The main referee for the match will be Mykola Balakin, assisted by Alexander Berkut and Dmytro Zaporozhenko on the lines. Yaroslav Kozik will serve as the fourth official.
Prior to this, Ukrainian referees worked at a UEFA Champions League group stage match on September 16, 1998. Vasil Melnychuk, a native of Simferopol, officiated as the main referee in the match between Spanish club "Athletic" and Norwegian team "Rosenborg" in Bilbao. Currently, Melnychuk serves as an observer of arbitration for the Ukrainian Football Association.
Ukrainian referees regularly officiate matches in the qualifying stages of the Champions League, group stages of the Europa League and Conference League, as well as qualification matches for the European and World Championships.
Recently, the UEFA Arbitration Committee entrusted a Ukrainian referee team with officiating the central match of the Europa League round – "Olympic" versus "Brighton," where the chairman of the UEFA Arbitration Committee, Roberto Rosetti, worked as an observer. According to his report, the Ukrainian referees received a high rating.
Recall that on November 23rd, the draw for the Euro 2024 playoffs took place in the Swiss city of Nyon. Twelve national teams, including Ukraine, will compete for the last three spots in the tournament. These are the winners of Groups A, B, and C of the Nations League, which did not qualify for Euro 2024, as well as the highest-ranked teams from these divisions that also did not qualify. The draw results are already available on the UEFA website.
In Group A, the semi-finals will feature Poland vs. Estonia and Wales vs. Finland. Ukraine, placed in Group B, will meet Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semi-final. The winner of this pair will face the winner of the Israel vs. Iceland match in the final. As for Group C, no draw was needed as the pairings were already known, and only the final host was determined.