RateTheRef

A Russian ref for Slovakia v Hungary - that will be interesting given the recentish history between the 3 nations!

Well he was better than Karasev but that's not really much of a compliment.  I'd not be happy to see his name on another of our games.

Group H
25 March 2019, 18:00 CET - Eskişehir (Eskişehir Yeni Atatürk Stadyumu)
TURKEY - MOLDOVA
Referee: Serhiy Boyko (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Semen Shlonchak (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Ihor Al'okhin (UKR)
Fourth Official: Mykola Balakin (UKR)
UEFA Referee Observer: John Ferry (NIR)
UEFA Delegate: John Taylor (SCO)

Group A
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Prishtina (Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri)
KOSOVO - BULGARIA
Referee: Gediminas Mažeika (LTU)
Assistant Referee 1: Vytautas Šimkus (LTU)
Assistant Referee 2: Vytenis Kazlauskas (LTU)
Fourth Official: Manfredas Lukjančukas (LTU)
UEFA Referee Observer: Andreas Schluchter (SUI)
UEFA Delegate: Kris Bellon (BEL)

Group A
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Podgorica (Gradski Stadion)
MONTENEGRO - ENGLAND
Referee: Aliaksiej Kuĺbakoŭ (BLR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dzmitryj Žuk (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Alieh Maslianka (BLR)
Fourth Official: Dzianis Ščarbakoŭ (BLR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Sándor Piller (HUN)
UEFA Delegate: Jānis Mežeckis (LVA)

Group B
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Luxembourg (Stade Josy Barthel)
LUXEMBOURG - UKRAINE
Referee: Mattias Gestranius (FIN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Peter Aravirta (FIN)
Assistant Referee 2: Mikko Alakare (FIN)
Fourth Official: Petri Viljanen (FIN)
UEFA Referee Observer: Ferenc Székely (HUN)
UEFA Delegate: Michel Schafroth (SUI)

Group B
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Lisbon (Estádio do SL Benfica)
PORTUGAL - SERBIA
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Paweł Sokolnicki (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL)
Fourth Official: Tomasz Musiał (POL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Peter Fröjdfeldt (SWE)
UEFA Delegate: Tarik Shamel (ENG)

Group H
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Andorra la Vella (Estadi Comunal)
ANDORRA - ALBANIA
Referee: Filip Glova (SVK)
Assistant Referee 1: František Ferenc (SVK)
Assistant Referee 2: Peter Kováč (SVK)
Fourth Official: Boris Marhefka (SVK)
UEFA Referee Observer: Michális Koukoulákis (GRE)
UEFA Delegate: Jacob Erel (ISR)

Group H
25 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Saint-Denis (Stade de France)
FRANCE - ICELAND
Referee: István Kovács (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Vasile Florin Marinescu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Mihai Ovidiu Artene (ROU)
Fourth Official: Ionuț Marius Avram (ROU)
UEFA Referee Observer: Frank De Bleeckere (BEL)
UEFA Delegate: Tammo Beishuizen (NED)

Kovacs and Marciniak with important observers... the latter really needs to up his game after a very indifferent last few months IMO.

For us, a good game for Kulbakov in Montenegro.

I can't tell if Kovacs has any realistic chances for promotion to the Elite. But he is trusted by the committee with an interesting match. I guess that Kyros Vassaras may have played a part on it.

Kulbakov should be considered an Elite referee. His appointments and performances those last months have been more than good. Final test perhaps?

Plenty of Hungarian observers around these days! Piller seems to be a regular observer in the CL and EL but I'm not familiar with Szekely.

52yr old. Retired 09/10 I think. Was an AR not referee. His International exploits include World Cup 2002 In Japan/South Korea, FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001, same place, Olympic games in 2000, U21 Euros in 2000 all of which he  was the only representative from Hungary. In 01/02 he had a couple of AR appointments in the CLQual (1) & CL(2) including as AR1 to Kyros Vassaras, but not with a Hungarian team of match officials, several more appointments the following season but again not with Hungarian officials - he was in Hugh Dallas's team twice & Graham Polls team. 2004 he appeared with a Hungarian team in a CL qual - Janos Megyebiro was ref & Tibor Vámos, who later went onto line for one Mr Kassai! He had 3 games in the EL Qual 1 in 97/98 with Sándor Piller as ref, piller retired the following year I do believe, 1 in 00/01 with Ferenc Bede & 1 with a Romanian referee. He also did an International friendly with Bede, who did at most 10-15 matches across several seasons.  His only other international appointment was in the intertoto cup in 05/06 with Szabolcs Saskoy as ref.  Hungary were not blessed in the early years of Puhl's reign (2000-onwards) in terms of International match officials!!! Thank goodness for Károly Palotai or Kassai would never have made the International list!!!

Group J
26 March 2019, 18:00 CET - Yerevan (Vazgen Sargsyan anvan Hanrapetakan Marzadasht)
ARMENIA - FINLAND
Referee: Nikola Dabanović (MNE)
Assistant Referee 1: Milutin Đukić (MNE)
Assistant Referee 2: Jovica Tatar (MNE)
Fourth Official: Milovan Milačić (MNE)
UEFA Referee Observer: Shmuel Shteif (ISR)
UEFA Delegate: Michał Listkiewicz (POL)

Group D
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Dublin (Aviva Stadium)
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - GEORGIA
Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Charles Schaap (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Jan de Vries (NED)
Fourth Official: Dennis Higler (NED)
UEFA Referee Observer: Matteo Simone Trefoloni (ITA)
UEFA Delegate: Vignir Már Ţormóđsson (ISL)

Group D
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Basel (St. Jakob-Park)
SWITZERLAND - DENMARK
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jure Praprotnik (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Robert Vukan (SVN)
Fourth Official: Matej Jug (SVN)
UEFA Referee Observer: Bertrand Layec (FRA)
UEFA Delegate: Alan McRae (SCO)

Group F
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Ta' Qali (National Stadium)
MALTA - SPAIN
Referee: Andrew Dallas (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Francis Connor (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Daniel McFarlane (SCO)
Fourth Official: Kevin Clancy (SCO)
UEFA Referee Observer: Zoran Petrović (SRB)
UEFA Delegate: Kieran O'Connor (WAL)

Group F
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Oslo (Ullevaal Stadion)
NORWAY - SWEDEN
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Alberto Tegoni (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Giorgio Peretti (ITA)
Fourth Official: Daniele Doveri (ITA)
UEFA Referee Observer: William Young (SCO)
UEFA Delegate: Rainer Koch (GER)

Group F
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Cluj-Napoca (Stadionul "Dr. Constantin Rădulescu")
ROMANIA - FAROE ISLANDS
Referee: Halil Umut Meler (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Esat Sancaktar (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: İbrahim Çağlar Uyarcan (TUR)
Fourth Official: Mete Kalkavan (TUR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Igor Pristovnik (CRO)
UEFA Delegate: Márton Esterházy (HUN)

Group J
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Zenica (Stadion Bilino polje)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - GREECE
Referee: Danny Makkelie (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Mario Diks (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Hessel Steegstra (NED)
Fourth Official: Pol van Boekel (NED)
UEFA Referee Observer: Christer Fällström (SWE)
UEFA Delegate: Thura Win (ENG)

Group J
26 March 2019, 20:45 CET - Parma (Stadio Ennio Tardini)
ITALY - LIECHTENSTEIN
Referee: Kirill Levnikov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Dmitriy Mosyakin (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Aleksey Vorontsov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Vladimir Moskalev (RUS)
UEFA Referee Observer: Terje Hauge (NOR)
UEFA Delegate: Crawford Wilson (NIR)

Thura Win is male, who  has always been quite high profile in the Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey area.

Important observers for Gözübüyük, Skomina, Dallas and Levnikov.

Makkelie, definitely. Gözübüyük is still only in First Group and needs time to develop. He had some doubtful performances the last 2 years and seems to struggle a bit.

Makkelie seems to be in pole position because he is in the Elite group but also his performances have been quite good.