Thursday’s referee and match officials for the UEFA Europa League Group A decider with SC Freiburg are from Portugal, bar the assistant VAR Nejc Kajtazovic, who hails from Slovenia.
The officiating crew will be led by FIFA referee João Pinheiro.
The 35-year-old was born in the town of Vila Nova de Famalicão, midway between Porto and Braga, and kicked-off his senior refereeing career in Portuguese football at the start of the 2014/15 season.
Since then, he has refereed over 325 matches at senior and age-group levels, including 24 in UEFA competitons and nine men’s internationals.
Pinheiro has refereed a number of high-profile domestic matches, including the 2023 Portuguese Cup final, in which FC Porto beat SC Braga 2-0, the 2021 Portuguese Super Cup between Sporting Lisbon and Braga and two Portuguese League Cup finals in 2019 and 2023, which were won by Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto respectively.
He has also been busy at home and broad this season, refereeing ties in the UEFA Champions League – Manchester City’s home win over Red Star Belgrade – UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, Portuguese Liga and Liga 2, Portuguese Cup and the international friendly between Germany and Japan.
He also officiated at the UEFA European U21 Championship finals in Georgia and Romania during the summer just gone.
Pinheiro will be assisted by compatriots Bruno Jesus and Luciano Maia, fourth official João António Ferreira Gonçalves and VAR Tiago Martins.
Following the conclusion of our UEFA Europa League group-stage campaign, the Irons welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to London this coming Sunday in the Premier League.
Chris Kavanagh has been appointed as the referee for that game.
Kavanagh is from Ashton-under-Lyne – the same town in Greater Manchester where Sir Geoff Hurst was born – and began his refereeing career at the age of 13.
Now 38, he worked his way up through the officiating ranks and was promoted to the National League in 2012. He started working in the English Football League in 2014 and was invited into the Select Group of Referees, and therefore the Premier League, in 2017.
In all, Kavanagh has refereed over 350 matches at all levels, including 128 in the Premier League and 113 in the EFL, in addition to ten in senior UEFA club competitions.
He was the man in the middle for the 2021 EFL Championship Play-Off final at Wembley Stadium, where Brentford defeated Swansea City.
In 2019, he was appointed to FIFA’s international list of referees and he has since refereed three UEFA Nations League ties.
Kavanagh has refereed West Ham United on 21 previous occasions, the most recent of which was the 3-1 Premier League defeat at Liverpool in September this year. He has also taken charge of 14 previous Wolverhampton Wanderers fixtures.
He will be assisted by the experienced Simon Bennett, who ran the line at UEFA Euro 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals, and Dan Robathan, who has been doing so in the Premier League since 2018.
