Monday, 29 September 2025

Champions League 2025/26 - Referee Appointments - Matchday 2 (II)

2025-26 UEFA Champions League, referee appointments for the second set of MD2 games, to be played on Wednesday 1 October. 



1 October 2025

18:45 CET - Brussels (Lotto Park) 
ROYALE UNION SAINT-GILLOISE (BEL) - NEWCASTLE UNITED FC (ENG)
Referee: Urs Schnyder SUI
Assistant Referee 1: Marco Zürcher SUI
Assistant Referee 2: Benjamin Zürcher SUI
Fourth Official: Sven Wolfensberger SUI
Video Assistant Referee: Fedayi San SUI
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Lukas Fähndrich SUI
UEFA Referee Observer: Nicola Rizzoli ITA 
UEFA Delegate: Vignir Már Þormóðsson ISL

18:45 CET - Baku (Tofiq Bəhramov adına Respublika Stadionu)
FK QARABAĞ AĞDAM (AZE) - FC KØBENHAVN (DEN)
Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük NED
Assistant Referee 1: Erwin Zeinstra NED
Assistant Referee 2: Patrick Inia NED 
Fourth Official: Jannick Van Der Laan NED
Video Assistant Referee: Rob Dieperink NED
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Jeroen Manschot NED
UEFA Referee Observer: Sokol Jareci ALB 
UEFA Delegate: Jovan Šurbatovic SRB

21:00 CET - London (Emirates) 
ARSENAL FC (ENG) - OLYMBIAKÓS SFP (GRE) 
Referee: François Letexier FRA
Assistant Referee 1: Cyril Mugnier FRA
Assistant Referee 2: Mehdi Rahmouni FRA
Fourth Official: Eric Wattellier FRA
Video Assistant Referee: Sören Storks GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Ivan Bebek CRO 
UEFA Referee Observer: Markus Nobs SUI 
UEFA Delegate: Mauro Tonolini ITA

21:00 CET - Leverkusen (BayArena) 
BAYER 04 LEVERKUSEN (GER) - PSV (NED) 
Referee: Glenn Nyberg SWE 
Assistant Referee 1: Mahbod Beigi SWE
Assistant Referee 2: Andreas Söderkvist SWE
Fourth Official: Adam Ladebäck SWE
Video Assistant Referee: Carlos Del Cerro Grande ESP
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Alen Borošak SVN
UEFA Referee Observer: Darko Čeferin SVN
UEFA Delegate: Edgars Pukinsks LVA

21:00 CET - Villarreal (Estadio de la Cerámica)
VILLARREAL CF (ESP) - JUVENTUS FC (ITA) 
Referee: István Kovács ROU
Assistant Referee 1: Mihai Marica ROU 
Assistant Referee 2: Ferencz Tunyogi ROU
Fourth Official: Szabolcs Kovacs ROU
Video Assistant Referee: Cătălin Popa ROU
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Christian Dingert GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Stefan Johannesson SWE 
UEFA Delegate: Aristeidis Stavropoulos GRE

21:00 CET - Naples (Stadio Diego Armando Maradona)
SSC NAPOLI (ITA) - SPORTING CP (POR)
Referee: Danny Makkelie NED 
Assistant Referee 1: Hessel Steegstra NED
Assistant Referee 2: Jan de Vries NED
Fourth Official: Allard Lindhout NED
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Michael Salisbury ENG 
UEFA Referee Observer: Martin Hansson SWE
UEFA Delegate: Alojzije Šupraha CRO

21:00 CET - Monaco (Stade Louis II) 
AS MONACO (FRA) - MANCHESTER CITY FC (ENG)
Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano ESP
Assistant Referee 1: Ángel Nevado ESP
Assistant Referee 2: Guadalupe Porras Ayuso ESP
Fourth Official: José Luis Munuera ESP
Video Assistant Referee: César Soto Grado ESP
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández ESP
UEFA Referee Observer: Stefano Podeschi SMR
UEFA Delegate: Ignas Marcinkevičius LTU 

21:00 CET - Dortmund (Signal Iduna Park)
BORUSSIA DORTMUND (GER) - ATHLETIC CLUB (ESP)
Referee: Szymon Marciniak POL 
Assistant Referee 1: Tomasz Listkiewicz POL
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Kupsik POL
Fourth Official: Wojciech Myc POL
Video Assistant Referee: Pol van Boekel NED 
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Tiago Bruno Lopes Martins POR
UEFA Referee Observer: Martin Ingvarsson SWE
UEFA Delegate: Thomas Grimm SUI 

21:00 CET - Barcelona (Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys)
FC BARCELONA (ESP) - PARIS SAINT GERMAIN FC (FRA) 
Referee: Michael Oliver ENG
Assistant Referee 1: Stuart Burt ENG
Assistant Referee 2: James Mainwaring ENG
Fourth Official: Andrew Madley ENG
Video Assistant Referee: Jarred Gillett AUS
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Bastian Dankert GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Stefan Meßner AUT
UEFA Delegate: Angelo Chetcuti MLT
Posted by at
Labels:

44 comments:

  1. Gref29 September 2025 at 10:13

    I think Georgian referees are being punished. Do you agree with me?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chefren29 September 2025 at 10:19

      Punished for what? You can expect Kruashvili in Champions League, but he doesn't get too many games, he is mostly in Europa League. Let's wait for tomorrow assignment for knowing more about them.

      Delete
  2. anty7529 September 2025 at 10:17

    Ethnic Turkish although Dutch citizen Gözübüyük in Azerbaijan I think its not ideal...

    ReplyDelete
  3. HB230029 September 2025 at 10:19

    It is very wrong to appoint a Turkish referee to an Azerbaijani team. Copenhagen should appeal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eric van Marwijk29 September 2025 at 11:54

      Gozubuyuk is not Turkish... he is born an raised in the Netherlands.. so he is Dutch!

      Delete
    2. HB230029 September 2025 at 11:57

      He is 100% turkish 😂

      Delete
  4. Chefren29 September 2025 at 10:23

    Very strange assignments regarding VAR, we never saw something like that, a full mix. Sounds like a message by committee, all referees must work with all VAR at this level.. well, this wasn't the same before. Some very surprising choices for sure.
    Very good for Oliver who got this one after Ajax - Inter, but once again, we can't say there are many alternatives for committee.
    Classic Elite referees with Italian teams in games that can be challenging, Villarreal - Juventus and Napoli - Sporting.
    These two games clearly differently treated if compared to Atalanta and Inter yesterday. Good moment for Nyberg.
    Letexier will have a rather normal game compared to his standards.
    Rizzoli to check Schnyder.

    ReplyDelete
  5. M29 September 2025 at 10:23

    Oliver,Makkelie and Kovacs get the most challenging matches,especially Oliver,I expect there hostile enviroment and big game for viewers and Oliver.

    Kovacs gets tricky match,both temperamental teams and we saw last time he handled Spanish team,there was lot of problems.

    Makkelie also gets temperamental teams and his style can maybe be problem with these teams.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hans29 September 2025 at 10:55

    I expected a much bigger game for Gözübüyük. Makkelie domnestic in a bad period, hopefully he can recovery from that in Napels

    ReplyDelete
  7. Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf29 September 2025 at 10:56

    Chevren you see what I talking for you yesterday ie going , this is absolute humiliation for the Portuguese referees as well as Portuguese football

    ReplyDelete
  8. HB230029 September 2025 at 10:56

    UEFA should change Serdar Gözübüyük on the Qarabag-Copenhagen game.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jonas Bülow-Olsen29 September 2025 at 11:10

    As a Copenhagen fan i think Copenhagen should appeal this appointment

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HB230029 September 2025 at 11:51

      It's like appointing a Danish referee to this game. It's not fair.

      Delete
    2. Eric van Marwijk29 September 2025 at 11:56

      Gozubuyuk is Dutch, not Turkish, born and raised in Haarlem

      Delete
    3. HB230029 September 2025 at 12:01

      lool.. look at his name and surname. He is 100% Turkish :) He speaks Turkish very well. He has pictures with Turkish Shirt :) link for you .. https://www.tff.org/Resources/TFF/Auto/34e4532db77c44bdadebd0ec266164f0.jpg

      Delete
    4. Eric van Marwijk29 September 2025 at 12:11

      He has Turkish roots, and yes a Turkish name, so.......not the Turkish Nationality......don't see the problem, to be honest! he before also refereed the Georgian team....and why an in your eyes Turkish referee (although Dutch nationality) can not referee a team from Azerbeidzjan, and a Romanian for exemple can ref a Serbian, Spanish can ref Portugeese...German can ref Dutch......and so on... give me a good reason???

      Delete
    5. Jonas Bülow-Olsen29 September 2025 at 12:24

      I off course don´t think that Gözüböyük will be biased in the game, but i think it is a problem with his Türkish roots. For me it is like appointing a Faroese referee to a game with danish teams. I think it is a problem also with the connection between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Hopefully everything will go well, but i just think UEFA have a lot of other referees to choose from which would be more sensible

      Delete
    6. HB230029 September 2025 at 12:24

      Have you ever seen an Azerbaijani referee assigned to a Turkish team's game ? Or a Turkish referee assigned to an Azerbaijani team? This has never happened before. I'm sorry, but it's unfair. Turks and Azerbaijanis are like same nation.

      Delete
    7. CarlRDM29 September 2025 at 12:34

      "he before also refereed the Georgian team...a Romanian for exemple can ref a Serbian, Spanish can ref Portugeese..."

      You are missing the point totally

      For example, imagine Ismail Elfath (USA) refereeing match of Moroccan national team?

      It is not a question of whether the referee will be impartial, of course he will be. The point is:with such a appointment you give space to the media, teams, fans to speculate about the bias of the referees...so, not the wisest delegation.

      Delete
    8. anty7529 September 2025 at 12:59

      Eric van Marwijk, unlike Spanish and Portuguese, Serbs and Romanians Turks and Azeri are one nation, even Azeri president Aliyev say it openly, "two countries one nation". Better analogy would be Greece and Cyprus and you never see Greek referees in matches involving Cypriot teams. And yes I know that Gözübüyük is Dutch citizen but still better not to appoint him to Turkish or Azeri teams.

      Delete
    9. Eric van Marwijk29 September 2025 at 13:32

      This is something completely different... Greece/Turkey-Cyprus..... is something else than turkey and Azerbeidzjan who have a good relationship, wich you can't say from Cyprus and Greece/Turkey.

      Delete
    10. anty7529 September 2025 at 13:39

      ??? Greece and Cyprus are one nation and have very close relations, so do Turkey and Azerbaijan. Its very obvious analogy

      Delete
    11. Eric van Marwijk29 September 2025 at 14:23

      Iff they are one nation, then why you have Azerbaidzjan national team, Cyprus national team, Turkey's national team, and Greeks national team, maybe analogy, but not geografical, they are all separate countrys, that governments work good together doesn't meen they are one country.

      Delete
    12. CarlRDM29 September 2025 at 15:12

      I'm glad you're persistent but you clearly don't differentiate between geography and politics, as well as between a nation and a state

      Delete
    13. CarlRDM29 September 2025 at 15:12

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    14. Andrei29 September 2025 at 15:14

      @Eric then why Almeida must be left Schaerer team when he appointed for Portugal match? They are all separate countries, that governments work good together doesn't mean they are one country, so?

      Delete
    15. Andrei29 September 2025 at 15:16

      @Eric be consistent

      Delete
    16. CarlRDM29 September 2025 at 15:29

      One more example:
      In the qualifiers Granit Maqedonci (SWE) was appointed as the 4th official to the team from Kosovo so shortly after that he was removed from that match.
      Therefore the ref committee change the appointment delegation with the intention of avoiding any problems or speculation. And we are talking about 4th official...
      Personally, as a committee I would swap Schnyder and Gözübüyük as a solomonic solution.

      Delete
  10. Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf29 September 2025 at 11:23

    I don't know the Portuguese are bad to this point that makes them unable to handle a normal champions league match or there is problem the Portuguese referee with uefa committee referee

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jleekens29 September 2025 at 11:31

      Pinheiro just did the Supercup, so there is no issue with the referee committee. Pinheiro is also at another tournament, so he can't officiate in the Champions League right now. Carvalho Nobre had an international game (France - Iceland) and did a terrible job, so he doesn't deserve Champions League right now. This leaves only Branco Godinho, who still needs to make his debut and there are only so many games suitable for a debut.

      As a side note, please calm down in the number of complaints about the situation of Portuguese referees. It's kind of annoying when every post is flooded with comments about this, especially since most comments don't really contribute

      Delete
    2. Peter29 September 2025 at 11:52

      @jleekens: +1

      Delete
  11. Neil29 September 2025 at 12:27

    Great to see 3 English teams working in the Champions League this week. Probably the first time since the days of Webb, Atkinson & Clattenburg

    ReplyDelete
  12. Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf29 September 2025 at 12:31

    No we contribute we have questions that need answers , is poland,, Lithuania, slovenia , norway, sweden, holland, have referees better than Portuguese referees if the answer yes the topic is over if no why we don't see Portuguese referee in the champions like these countries

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ichigo29 September 2025 at 12:53

      Do you know to read or not? You got the answer why aren't portuguese referee in this week in CL. Because Pinheiro is at WC under 20 and Nobre had a weak game in WC games. And the third one, Godinho is to young for this games. Do you understand or not? Or maybe we should draw for you to understand.

      Delete
    2. Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf29 September 2025 at 12:58

      Is Portugal have no other referees except Pinheiro my opinion nobre and godinho is not less majority of the referees that is appointed yesterday and today

      Delete
  13. Anonymous29 September 2025 at 12:39

    Perhaps the VAR experiment could turn out to be quite revealing. Over time, there are bound to be situations where certain CRs and VARs become too close. Or where personal considerations creep in: “I won’t call my colleague because… He will dislike it.” Take the case of Makkelie and Dieperink: the former was once the coach of the latter. That is hardly an ideal setup. Friction can also arise the other way around, between CR and VAR (“why didn’t you call me…?”). At the same time, some referees owe part of their outstanding reputation and track record to their regular VAR (e.g. Turpin & Brisard, Marciniak & Kwiatkowski).

    That said, the VAR must be independent, both in mind and in appearance. Mixing the VARs is one way to guarantee that. It is, however, noteworthy that certain teams (Oliver and Kovacs, for instance) do continue to work with their own VARs. The question, then, is: is this a deliberate choice in the case of “some” referees, and if so, why only for them?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf29 September 2025 at 12:54

    Thirty six match champions league is appointed referees until now no Portuguese referees is appointed champions league league until now at the same time some have five appointment is this logic , is this reasonable

    ReplyDelete
  15. Philipp S29 September 2025 at 12:58

    Quite a demotion for Hernandez only working as AVAR, meaning he won't even get an EL game this week.
    Rather surprising after his CL PO appointment.
    The other missing Elite referees are Massa, Meler, Bastien and Stieler - let's see, whether all of them get EL on Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ref29 September 2025 at 13:01

      I suspect an injury for Bastien, he was replaced by Millot in his Ligue 1 game this week-end.

      Delete
    2. Chefren29 September 2025 at 13:17

      About Massa, should be a technical choice by committee, I think, following the missed red card in his previous UEFA game. That was a very big mistake. In addition, he was domestically involved in a controversial performance as AVAR in Verona - Juventus. The VAR appointed for that game made two crucial mistakes, and I think Massa was seen as responsible as well, indeed he officiated only in serie B on last Saturday and he very likely missed a big match (Juventus - Atalanta), in which Sozza was appointed coming directly from Lazio - Roma (unusual, it never happens).
      Guida replaced him as Italian referee appointed in this set and I think he will be in Europa League on Thursday.

      Delete
  16. Ref29 September 2025 at 13:08

    OT : Dechepy’s RC at the 48th second of yesterday’s Ligue 1 game.

    https://streambug.org/cv/9c0c97

    ReplyDelete
  17. MARIO29 September 2025 at 14:29

    Letexier, Oliver, Kovacs, Taylor, Guida and Nyberg: 6 elite referees immediately re-appointed just after been used in the 1st matchday; I'm surprise and a little bit disappointed. Why not Hernandez Henandez, Bastien, Meler, Stieler, Massa and another one picked from 1st class, like as Beaton, Walsh, Minankovic, Saggi etc

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for writing a comment on our blog!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)