Who is István Kovács, the referee for AC Milan vs Napoli Champions League quarter final first leg?
The 38-year-old Romanian match official will oversee his fifth game in this edition of the tournament at San Siro.
UEFA have designated referee István Kovács to take charge of Wednesday’s Champions League quarter final first leg between AC Milan and Napoli.
Serie A leaders Napoli take on the team sat three places below them in fourth in an all-Italian affair at San Siro. It means we are guaranteed to see at least one Italian club in the semis - possibly two, with Inter Milan in the driving seat in their tie after beating Benfica 0-2 on Tuesday night.
- AC Milan vs Napoli: Follow the live action here!
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Making sure the Milan vs Napoli game flows smoothly without any hitches will be 38-year-old Romanian match official István Kovács, who will lead an all-Romanian team comprising line officials Vasile Florin and Ovidiu Artene and fourth official Horatiu Fesnic with German officials Bastian Dankert and Marco Fritz in the VAR room.
Kovács, who has dual Romanian-Hungarian nationality, has been professionally active since 2007 and gained his FIFA license in 2010. He oversaw his first game, the Romanian SuperLiga clash between Politehnica Timisoara and Pandurii Targu Jiu in August 2007 - the first of 17 league games he officiated that season.
International career
He was handed his first international in May 2010 - a friendly between Italy and Northern Ireland at Under-19 level but his first senior game didn’t come until three years later - he was in charge of the 2014 World Cup qualifier between Latvia and Liechtenstein in October 2012.
Kovács has whistled four major finals in his career so far. His first was the Cupa Romaniei final between Voluntari and Astra Giurgiu in May 2016 followed a couple of months later by the Supercupa Romaniei. He was selected to oversee the inaugural UEFA Conference League final between Roma and Feyenoord in May 2021 and more recently, officiated the Arabian Gulf Cup final in which Iraq edged Oman 3-2.
He was appointed for the 2022 World Cup but did not referee any games at the tournament, acting as fourth official in eight matches.
Kovacs’ figures
A former player, Kovács is not known for being a particularly strict ref although he has no qualms about asserting his authority when things get out of hand. In his 471 games so far, he has dished out 2482 bookings and sent 167 players off - 78 of those were straight red cards and the majority in the Romanian league. He has awarded at total of 150 penalties.
This will be his fifth game in this edition of the Champions League. He was in charge for three group stage games (Dinamo Zagreb-Chelsea, Club Brugge-Atlético and Bayer Leverkusen-Porto) and well as the Last 16 first leg between Liverpool and Real Madrid.