UEFA Referees Committee appointed Milorad Mazic as the referee of this important meeting

As every year, the world is paralyzed when the most important international football club tournament begins, as is the UEFA Champions League. The 2017-2018 season has been one of the most colorful, to give it a subtle qualification, mainly due to arbitration decisions, which have overshadowed the beauty of this sport.

Milorad Mažić, appointed referee for Kiev

The UEFA Referees Committee appointed the body of referees who will be participating in the final of the Champions League between Real Madrid and Liverpool, to be held on Saturday May 26 at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

Who is Milorad Mažić?

This Serbian referee, born in the city of Vrbas in 1973, has an important route, being international since 2009 and making his debut in a match of the Europa League of 2010, coincidentally, between Liverpool and Sparta Prague. Mažić is respected in the refereeing world and is selected for the next World Cup of Russia 2018.

Also read: Could the final of the Europa League determine the future of 'Cholo' Simeone?

Among the important meetings he has directed there are:

• Final of the Confederations Cup 2017, where Germany beat Chile 1-0.
• 2016 European Supercup, where Real Madrid beat Sevilla 3-2.
• Fourth referee of the final of the Champions League between Real Madrid and Juventus.
• Round of 16 of the Europa League 2015-2016 season between Liverpool and Manchester United, ending with a draw that was enough to advance to the next round.
• Brazil World Cup 2014, in which he led Germany-Portugal (4-0) and Argentina-Iran (1-0).
• European Championship of France 2016, in the matches Ireland-Sweden (1-1), Spain-Turkey (3-0) and Hungary-Belgium (0-4).
• Five matches of the current season of the UCL.

Mažić has a considerable record to have been selected as the referee of the final in Kiev, but he also knows what it is to whistle both Real Madrid and Liverpool. The first team has some positive statistics regarding the results obtained when the Serb has been present in the field, if it is to take IGNORE INTO account when making a statistical analysis.

Mažić is not considered a referee of red cards, having a record of zero in both the Champions League and the Europa League and having 21 yellow cards in the current season in both leagues, with an average of 3.25-4.00 cards per game.

No one can deny that human errors exist. However, millions of spectators could have sentenced live from their homes: hands in the area that the referees and assistants did not see; dubious penalties; inexistent faults; among others. The final result: teams unfairly eliminated and others favored with arbitration decisions. This issue of the arbitration controversy is not new, it has already been lived in the past in this same tournament. What is the difference today? The opening of new channels and alternative transmission platforms to attract more viewers in every corner of the world. All become arbitrators and can judge through social networks massively.

UEFA is resisting the implementation of the video-arbitration system or VAR for its acronym in English, which could have changed the course of some of the matches of the quarter and semi-final phase of the Champions League. It should be remembered that, if there is no unanimous agreement, the criterion is not to intervene and the VAR would be useless.

The truth is that the mistakes have been plagued in each of the meetings, in greater and lesser amounts, not only from the main referee but the entire team of assistants including the fourth referee.

The planet will be paralyzed again to witness an electrifying final between two of the best teams in the world. In spite of the enviable trajectory and statistics that speak for themselves of the work of the Serbian, Mažić does not escape the veil of controversy in arbitral decisions, as well as subjectivity in the appreciative which will displease one sector or the other, depending on the side.

Latin American Post | Gabriel Moros
Translated from "Esta es la apuesta de la UEFA para disipar polémicas en la final Real Madrid-Liverpool"