Skomina the man in the middle in Madrid for Champions League Final

Slovenian referee Damir Skomina will be in charge for Saturday's Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. 

The 42-year-old official will have two fellow Slovenian’s running the line (Jure Praprotnik and Robert Vukan), a Spanish fourth official Antonio Mateu Lahoz and, should he need him, the VAR official is Dutchman Danny Makkelie.

Skomina used VAR to award Manchester United a controversial late penalty against PSG earlier this season. He was also the first ref to overturn a goal in the Champions League using VAR.

This is Skomina’s sixth season as a top level FIFA referee and he has been in charge of 58 Champions League games and 128 UEFA matches so far in his career – including Atletico Madrid’s 2012 UEFA Super Cup win over Chelsea and the 2017 Europa League final when Manchester United beat Ajax.

Skomina’s tournament experience includes officiating at EURO 2012 and 2016 and in Russia for the 2017 Confederations Cup and last year’s FIFA World Cup.

He has officiated three previous Liverpool games in the Champions League – their 2-1 home defeat to Fiorentina a decade ago and last year he was on the pitch for Liverpool’s 4-2 away defeat to Roma and the 1-0 win over Napoli at Anfield last December. The one Champions League game he has referred involving Spurs was the 4-3 defeat to Inter in Milan in 2010 on a night Gareth Bale got all three goals for Tottenham.

He may be familiar to some Ireland fans as he was in charge for Ireland’s 1-0 away win in Wales in October 2017, for when John O’Shea got a late equaliser for the Boys in Green away to Germany in 2014 and in Ireland’s 2-1 home defeat to Sweden in 2013.

extratime.ie reporter Macdara Ferris will be in Madrid this weekend to cover the Champions League Final and give a flavour of events from the Spanish capital as Spurs battle it out with Liverpool to be crowned champions of Europe.

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile