UEFA's Refereeing Committee has entrusted a Ukrainian referee team with officiating one of the opening fixtures of the main round (league phase) of the 2026/27 Champions League season. The Ukrainian officials will work at a match in Paris involving the reigning champions. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing the official website of the Ukrainian Association of Football. The appointment is a notable event for Ukrainian refereeing, as the match pits a French giant against a Slovakian club at the level of the most prestigious European club competition.
Team appointment: who will be on the pitch
The main referee for the clash between France's PSG and Slovakia's Slovan from Bratislava has been appointed as Mykola Balakin. On the touchlines he will be assisted by assistant referees Oleksandr Berkut and Viktor Matyash, while the duties of the fourth official will be assigned to Dmytro Panchyshyn. Thus, on the pitch and in reserve, exclusively Ukrainian referees will be working, which underscores UEFA's trust in the domestic refereeing school.
Video replays: foreign specialists
The only foreign members of the refereeing team will be the VAR system specialists. The main video referee has been appointed as the Englishman Michael Salisbury, and his assistant (AVAR) will be the Slovenian Matej Jug. This combination — a Ukrainian on-field team paired with foreign video referees — is standard practice for top-level matches and helps preserve objectivity when reviewing controversial episodes.
Balakin's fifth match at the top level
For Mykola Balakin, the upcoming fixture will already be his fifth in his career at the level of the main stage of the most prestigious European club tournament. Regular appointments to matches of this scale testify to the referee's consistently high status within the UEFA system and to the fact that he is among the officials trusted to officiate games involving the continent's strongest clubs.
Ukrainian trace in both squads
The appointment takes on a special resonance given that Ukrainian footballers feature in both clubs' squads. The Parisian giant fields defender Ilya Zabaunny, while the colours of the Bratislava club are defended by midfielder Danylo Ignatenko and forward Nikolay Kucharevych. In effect, the match becomes a contest with a notable Ukrainian undertone: referees from Ukraine will officiate a game in which representatives of the national school take the field on both sides.
Where and when: match details
The encounter between PSG and Slovan will take place on Wednesday, 9 September, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris. Mykola Balakin's opening whistle will sound at 22:00 Kyiv time. According to the source, the reigning champions will take part in the match, which further raises the significance of the appointment and fans' attention to the refereeing team's work.
