PLAY THE ADVANTAGE

The referees for this week’s Europa League matches are finally out, and there are lots of new faces!

Couple of interesting notes:

England’s Martin Atkinson will referee Dynamo Kyiv v. Valencia, making him the only English referee to have a European match so far. Howard Webb and Mark Clattenburg have to still be in the running for Champions League matches next week.

Craig Thomson of Scotland also got a call up; he’ll be managing Chornomorets Odesa v. Lyon.

Wolfgang Stark of Germany will take PAOK v. Benfica. Stark has been Germany’s number one in the past few years, but has been overtaken by Felix Brych, who will represent Germany in the World Cup. This appears to be the twilight for one of the great German referees.

And finally, my Spurs drew a Spanish referee I’m unfamiliar with: Antonio Mateu Lahoz. I’ll have my eye on him…