The UEFA European Football Headquarters provided an extremely precise referee lineup for the upcoming matches between Ludogorets and Ferencvaros in the third qualifying round of the tournament. The appointed referees are among the most renowned international referees with FIFA's "Elite" category.
The first match in Razgrad on August 6th at 20:30 will be led by Norwegian referee Espen Eskos. The 37-year-old referee has extensive international experience, recently serving as the fourth official at Euro 2024 and officiating three matches in the Olympic football tournament.
In his career so far, Eskos has had the opportunity to lead extremely responsible matches. Among them is the Nations League match between Georgia and Bulgaria on June 6, 2022, which ended 0:0. At that time, the current BFS President Georgi Ivanov was leading the Bulgarian national team.
In international club tournaments, the Norwegian referee has a remarkable statistic - he has officiated a total of 22 matches in the Champions League. An interesting fact is that he has never shown a direct red card, and has only once been required to send off a player with a second yellow card.
For the first match in Razgrad, his assistants will be his compatriots Jan Erik Engan and Andres Olav Dale, with Sigurd Smehus Kringstad as the fourth official. The video replay system will be controlled by Denis Johan Higler with assistant Mohamed Usman Aslam.
The return match on August 12th at 21:15 at the "Ferencvaros" stadium will be entrusted to Spanish referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez. At 42 years old, he is among the most authoritative referees in Spanish football with an impressive 132 matches in Primera Division.
Hernandez will be supported by referees Jose Naranjo and Marcos Cerdan Aguilar, with Alejandro Quintero Gonzalez as the fourth official. The video assistants will be Cesar Soto Grado and Daniel Trujillo Suarez.
The match delegate will be Zaur Hadji-Maharamov from Azerbaijan, and the referee observer will be Darko Ceferin from Slovenia.