Referee Evans and Quintet land Europa League Group Match
Principality Welsh Premier League referee Lee Evans has been awarded a Europa League group match in the first round of games in a fortnight's time.
The referee from Llanllechid in Gwynedd will be in the middle for the Group F match between FC Lausanne Sport and CSKA Moscow in Geneva on Thursday 16th September.
This is a fantastic appointment for Lee and thoroughly deserved. It's a great opportunity for the six Welsh officials.
The excellent appointment from the UEFA Referees Committee is further evidence of Evans' growing reputation on the European stage, which has been boosted by other notable games this season, for which he has scored very good marks from the UEFA referee observers.
Evans is currently abroad on another UEFA appointment as he will be the referee for the UEFA 2012 qualifier between San Marino and the Netherlands this evening, which is the World Cup finalists first match since their disappointment in the Soccer City Stadium in South Africa on July 11th. Last month, he was also in the middle at the daunting El Madrigal, home of the Spanish giants Villarreal for their Europa League play-off match against Dnepr.
In Geneva, Evans will be assisted by 25-year old Cardiff schoolteacher Kim Fisher and Phil Thomas from Trealaw. The 4th official will be the experienced Mark Whitby from Swansea, who has been a FIFA referee since 2003.
As UEFA are continuing with the six official experiment for Europa League matches, it means that two further Welsh officials have been nominated for the game. Welsh Premier League referees Kevin Morgan from Cardiff and Dean John from Swansea have been tasked with being the first ever Welsh officials to conduct the additional assistant experiment, as they will assist Evans from behind the by-line.
A delighted National Referees Officer Rodger Gifford said; "This is a fantastic appointment for Lee and thoroughly deserved. It's a great opportunity for the six Welsh officials."
The 2005 UEFA Cup winners from Moscow boast Russian 'keeper Igor Akinfeev, Brazilian international striker Vagner Love and Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda in their ranks.
Lausanne meanwhile, will be underdogs despite overcoming Lokomotiv Moscow in the previous round. The Swiss club are now a second division side and it has been nine years since they last competed in Europe, reaching the semi-finals of the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup.At the end of the 1990's they were regarded as one of Switzerland's top sides. They regularly competed for the league championship, won the 1998 and 1999 Swiss Cups and beat the likes of AFC Ajax and FC Torpedo Moskva in UEFA competition. That all changed in 2002 when financial problems led to the club's relegation to the second division. A year later similar issues meant they sank even further, into the fourth tier. Lausanne-Sports were forced to file for bankruptcy before being reformed as Lausanne-Sport. Three years on the new club are back up to the second division, playing in the UEFA Europa League as last season's beaten Swiss Cup finalists and their qualification for the group stages marks a real success story for the phoenix-club.
