UEFA has announced the list of elite referees for the first part of the 2025/2026 season. This was reported by Euro-football.ru.
This list includes a total of 30 referees. One of them is Russian referee Sergey Karasyov.
UEFA decided to include his name on the list, even though there are sanctions against him. Karasyov works alongside the highest-level referees.
This list features English referee Michael Oliver, French Clément Turpin, German Felix Zwayer, Slovenian referee Slavko Vinčić, Dutch Danny Makkelie, and other well-known referees. Before the imposition of sanctions against the Russian Football Union, Sergey Karasyov was regularly appointed to matches within UEFA tournaments.
For example, in 2021 he officiated the UEFA Super Cup match between Chelsea and Villarreal. Thus, UEFA has highly valued Karasyov's qualifications and recognized him as a member of the elite group.
This demonstrates that this referee is also highly respected internationally.
