Dutchman Bjorn Kuipers is the referee for the Euro 2020 final on Sunday, which sees Italy and England face off at Wembley.
At this summer’s tournament, he has already taken charge of two group stage matches, Denmark’s defeat to Belgium and Spain’s thrashing of Slovakia, as well as the quarter-final between Czech Republic and Denmark.
He was also appointed as fourth official for the group stage match as England beat Croatia.
In total he has shown 10 yellow cards in his three fixtures as the man in the middle.
Prior to the Euros, he was also in charge of Manchester City’s Champions League victory over PSG, where Angel Di Maria was shown a red card and six further players saw yellow. PSG midfielder Marco Verratti, who will be in Italy’s line-up in the final, claimed that Kuipers swore at him during that fixture.
The 48-year-old Dutchman, an international referee since 2006, will be the first referee from the Netherlands to take charge of a European Championship final.
It will be his seventh UEFA competition final, having previously refereed the 2018 and 2013 Europa League finals; the 2014 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid; the 2011 Uefa Super Cup match and two Uefa youth tournament finals – including one involving England, the 2009 U21 European Championship final.
Kuipers was also a member of the referees’ team at Euro 2012 and 2016, as well as at the Fifa World Cups in 2014 in Brazil and 2018 in Russia, highlighting his vast experience at the top level of the game.
Kuipers will be joined at Sunday’s final by Dutch assistants Sander van Roekel and Erwin Zeinstra, while Carlos Del Cerro Grande (Spain) will be fourth official. The video assistant referee (VAR) role has been assigned to Bastian Dankert (Germany), and he will be accompanied by Pol van Boekel (Netherlands), Christian Gittelmann and Marco Fritz (both Germany). Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (Spain) completes the line-up as assistant reserve referee.
