It’ll be the Dance of the Hard to Pronounce Referees when Champions League action resumes on Tuesday. World Cup referee Milorad Mazic of Serbia will call arguably the biggest game of the day: Atletico Madrid v. Real Madrid. Mazic (above) is a quick tempered and often physical referee who isn’t afraid to mix it up with the players, so it’ll be interesting
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Mark Clattenburg takes another big step up the ladder on August 12, when he referees the UEFA Super Cup. He’ll be in the middle when the winners of the 2013 Champions League, Real Madrid, take on the winners of the Europa League, Sevilla, in Cardiff, Wales. His preferred team, Simon Beck and Stuart Burt, will be his assistants, and Darren England
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Bjorn Kuipers is a good referee. And for the most part, his part in the 4-1 Real Madrid extra time win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Final was played well. If you’re a Real Madrid fan, you thought he was great. Unfortunately, for everyone else – Atletico Madrid fans and neutrals – what he did well is overshadowed
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When Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid clash in the Champions League final on Saturday, one of refereeing’s rising stars will be in the middle: Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands. And who better to help us get to know a distinguished Dutch referee than…a Dutch referee? Or rather, The Dutch Referee. If you haven’t checked out Jan’s blog, I’d highly recommend
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Surprise! Not really. As I predicted, the Dutchman and the German will take the Champions League and Europa League finals. Bjorn Kuipers, a supermarket owner from the Netherlands, will manage the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Lisbon, Portugal on May 24. Read more about Kuipers appointment on UEFA.com. Dr. Felix Brych, who is from Germany
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Pedro Proenca of Portugal will referee the Champions League final game between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on Tuesday, April 29. Proenca is the most boring international referee around. And that’s good. You don’t get very far with a “pedro proenca controversy” google search because there’s just not much. He is a very consistent, deliberate referee who is very calm
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England’s Top Dog, Howard Webb will referee the first leg of the Real Madrid v. Bayern Munich semifinal on Wednesday, April 23. Regular readers know that I think Webb, despite his experience and the fact that he already has his ticket to Brazil, isn’t England’s best referee anymore. That honour now goes to Mark Clattenburg, while Webb has visibly struggled
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Antonio Mateu Lahoz has gotten the nod for the El Clasico version of the Copa Del Rey final. Barcelona and Real Madrid will face off in Valencia on Wednesday, April 16. Mateu Lahoz is Valenciano himself, which may have tipped the scales in his favor, despite his never having refereed a Clasico before. The fact that top Spanish referee Alberto
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The referees for the first two quarterfinal second legs are Pedro Proenca of Portgual and Damir Skomina of Slovenia. Proenca will be at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea v. PSG, and Skomina will officiate Real Madrid v. Dortmund. Proenca is about as safe a bet as you can get. Not only is he a World Cup referee, but he’s just so good
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For the record, Mark Clattenburg is on fire this year. Just when I said I suspected that there would be no non-World Cup referees in the Champions League quarterfinals, he comes up big for Real Madrid v. Dortmund. It’s a shame, really. Howard Webb’s struggles are well-known, and Clatts is having the year of his life. If the last 6-9 months were
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