Friday, 4 September 2026

2026/27 UEFA Champions League - Referee Observers for MD1

UEFA has assigned the following observers to MD1 of 2026/27 Champions League, league phase.

Carlos Velasco Carballo observing a debut in Slavia Praha - Lens? 

Club Brugge - Aston Villa
Kýros Vassáras GRE

AEK - LASK
Hugh Dallas SCO

Real Madrid - Internazionale Milano
Elmir Pilav BIH

Borussia Dortmund - Villarreal
Stávros Tritsónis GRE

Porto - Manchester City
Herbert Fandel GER

LOSC - Real Betis
Rien Koopman NED

Barcelona - Feyenoord Rotterdam
Gianluca Rocchi ITA

Stuttgart - Viking
Alberto Undiano Mallenco ESP

Paris Saint-Germain - Slovan Bratislava
Lutz Michael Fröhlich GER

Liverpool - Atlético de Madrid
Stefan Meßner AUT

Sporting CP - Galatasaray
Dejan Filipović SRB

Napoli - Arsenal
Nuno Alexandre Parreira de Castro POR

PSV - Shakhtar Donetsk
Lucílio Cardoso Cortez Batista POR

Fenerbahçe - Roma
Jon Eilif Skjervold NOR

Bayern München - Bodø/Glimt
René Temmink NED

Manchester United - Sabah
Stefan Johannesson SWE

Slavia Praha - Lens
Carlos Velasco Carballo ESP

Como - RB Leipzig
Darko Čeferin SVN


Focus on Slavia - Praha - Lens.
Who will be the referee observed by a committe member? 

22 comments:

  1. UEFA Disciplinary Board:

    Following the incidents after the Lyon - Fenerbahçe match:
    • Guendouzi: 4-match ban (2 matches suspended for 1 year)
    • Greenwood: 1-match ban (1 match suspended for 1 year)
    • Olympique Lyonnais goalkeeper coach Antonio Ferreira: Suspended for a total of five (5) UEFA club competition matches in which he would otherwise participate, for serious assault. The suspension for two (2) of these matches is subject to a probationary period of one (1) year, starting from the date of the present decision.

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    Replies
    1. While all these fight were happening, the match referee Mariani and his team were taking a shower 🤣

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    2. Regardless of the poor performance in the match, this alone is more than enough reason to rest Mariani for a long time. He should rewatch the match from start to finish and learn from it.

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  2. In the last two seasons, Velasco observed a debut on MD1 (Walsh and Sylwestrzak) - so one could assume the same for now.
    The leading candidates for that should be Brooks, van der Eijk, Minakovic and Fotias, I think.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe add sam barrott into the equastion? Brooks isnt fully fit yet and hasnt refereed a premiership match

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    2. Brooks is refereeing today (Everton v Man Utd) and also refereed on the opening weekend of the Premier League (Fulham v Chelsea).

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  3. Today there is an important derby match in the Turkish league.
    Fenerbahçe – Beşiktaş
    The referee of the match is Halil Umut Meler.
    The VAR official is the Polish referee Tomasz Kwiatkowski.
    Additionally, Anthony Taylor will be watching the match in the stadium. Yesterday he watchos Başakşehir – Galatasaray .
    video: https://x.com/emirkiliccetinn/status/2095988948111683912?s=46

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  4. Rob Jones producing a below average performance in Newcastle v Bournemouth. Haphazard foul detection, poor rapport and overall not a great performance. If he is worthy of the FIFA badges then English refereeing is in a sorry state.

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  5. Van der Eijk good match until the van Bommel incident '81. Yc issued but head of referees van Meenen already said it was a missed rc. Life of a referee, good match but crucial mistake

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    Replies
    1. Clip of the incident https://x.com/MiltonSantinoFR/status/2096325647245144366?s=20

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    2. Very clear red. You can see that immediately just from the result of the foul. Unacceptable.

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    3. Even in American Football this hit would incur a very serious punishment! Van der Eijk must have badly misread the situation, the excessive force means nothing else matters.

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    4. Looking for a particular and then making a wrong assessment, it has become a common practice in modern refereeing, leading to mistakes. Here the very evident thing is that the opponent enters the challenge with MORE THAN excessive force. Enough to issue red card. I'm convinced that many referees have lost the confidence in such "old perception" because they always look for more, to give a red card.
      Said that, it's good to read about his positive performance!

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    5. Van Boekel (VAR) should be punished for this.

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  6. Inter and Napoli had interesting match in terms of actions,goals and everything else.

    But also,refereeing team with VAR had some questionable decisions.

    No penalty for very clear handball,couple holding on Lautaro and Jones also no penalty.

    Luckily for Sozza,Inter won,but again and again some crucial decisions are not in their favour.

    One time that happened in recent years that was big talking point was Bastoni's dive last year snd everyone talked about it like they did murdered someone .


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    Replies
    1. About the possible penalty for handbal, absoltuely punishable if happened, but the reason for NO VAR intervention is that they couldn't be sure about the touch and indeed it's impossible to say.

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  7. Sander van der Eijk’s first major top match tonight in Dutch League Ajax–PSV turned into a night that exposed serious concerns about his ability to handle matches at this level.

    He struggled throughout the game to keep control and never seemed to earn the necessary acceptance from the players. The repeated confrontations and several heated incidents were clear signs that he was losing his grip on the match.

    Nine yellow cards were shown but more notably an obvious red card offence was missed following a heavy challenge by PSV player.

    Overall this performance raises serious questions about whether Van der Eijk is currently ready to handle (international) matches of this magnitude. Tonight it looked like he is simply not ready yet for the biggest games.

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    Replies
    1. I'm surprised to hear he hasn't had a major top match before considering his UEFA appointments.

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    2. I don't know what match you've been watching. Sander van der Eijk had an excellent match, with full control and acceptance. There has been one unavoidable incident, which caused a mass confrontation and a repeated confrontation at the benches. You could argue if the YC for van Bommel was the right decision, but the following confrontation is absolutely not relatable to van der Eijk's performance.

      I think he performed really well in an important match, the only point is the missed RC for van Bommel. Which absolutely doesn't mean he is not able to handle these matches. I expect his UCL debut shortly.

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  8. Agree with pawel analyse. Very bad night for him in his first big match. He showed he is not ready for games like this. Even for international games till now now big games and group 1 is max for him I expect

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  9. Tuesday games appointments:

    Brugge - Aston Villa: Schärer
    AEK Athens - LASK: Godinho
    Real Madrid - Inter: Oliver
    Borussia Dortmund - Villarreal: Sozza
    Porto - Manchester City: Marciniak
    Lille - Betis: Kabakov

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