Yesterday, on November 6 in a Champions League group stage match between Sparta (Czech Republic) and Brest (France), which ended with the visitors winning 2-1, an historic event for Ukrainian football took place.

For the first time in history, a full Ukrainian refereeing team (including two VAR officials) of six specialists worked at a Champions League group stage match. The main referee was Mykola Balakin. On the lines he was assisted by Oleksandr Berkyt and Dmytro Zaporozhenko. Vitaliy Romanov fulfilled the duties of the fourth official, while Oleksiy Derevinskyi and Denis Shurman were responsible for VAR.

The Ukrainian Football Association congratulates and is proud of our referees and wishes all representatives of the refereeing corps in Ukraine new international assignments.

It's worth noting that as of now, Ukrainian referees have worked at Champions League group stage matches three times.

On September 16, 1998, in a match between Spanish Athletic Bilbao and Norwegian Rosenborg in Bilbao, the main referee was Simferopol native Vasyl Melnychuk.

And on November 29, 2023, a Ukrainian refereeing team consisting of Mykola Balakin (main referee), Oleksandr Berkyt and Dmytro Zaporozhenko (assistant referees) and Yaroslav Kozik (fourth official) worked at the match between Real Sociedad (Spain) and Salzburg (Austria).