At the club level, the UEFA Champions League is the pinnacle of football, and just like the players who will be involved on Saturday as PSG meet Inter Milan in Munich, the refereeing crew have also earned their way to the top.
Being assigned to work the Champions League final is a badge of honor that all UEFA match officials aspire to, and the 2025 edition of the competition is no different.
The individual selected to officiate this year’s continental title is Istvan Kovacs, who will officiate his first Champions League final but has significant European experience under his belt.
The Sporting News brings you a full look at the officiating crew for this enormous European final, as well as a deeper look at the man with the whistle.
Full refereeing crew for 2025 UEFA Champions League final
The on-field officiating crew is an all-Romanian trio, with head official Istvan Kovacs flanked by Mihai Marica and Ferencz Tunyogi.
The rest of the officiating crew hails from either the Netherlands or Portugal, with Portuguese fourth official Joao Pinheiro on the touchline handling the benches while Dutch referee Dennis Johan Higler leads the VAR crew.
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
Assistants: Mihai Marica, Ferencz Tunyogi (Romania)
Fourth Official: Joao Pedro Silva Pinheiro (Portugal)
Reserve AR: Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus (Portugal)
VAR: Dennis Johan Higler (Netherlands)
Assistant VAR: Catalin Sorin Popa (Romania)
VAR Support: Paulus van Boekel (Netherlands)
Who is Champions League final referee Istvan Kovacs?
40-year-old Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs has been selected to take charge of the 2025 Champions League final between PSG and Inter Milan.
While this will be Kovacs’ first Champions League final, he has worked his way up for some time to reach this point.
To illustrate this point, Kovacs was named the lead official for the first-ever UEFA Conference League final in 2022, which AS Roma won 1-0 over Feyenoord, before being handed head officiating duties two seasons later for last year’s Europa League final, which Atalanta won 3-0 over previously unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen.
He was also part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup officiating pool, and while he did not take charge of any matches in Qatar, he served eight times as fourth official throughout the competition.
Last summer, Kovacs was named to the pool of officials for Euro 2024, where he took charge of two group stage matches. He was in the spotlight during a match between Czech Republic vs. Turkey in which 16 yellow cards were dished out, a European Championship record. His red card to Antonin Barak of Turkey 20 minutes into the match was also the fastest red card in Euro history.
This season, Kovacs has presided over seven Champions League matches throughout the league phase and knockout stage, including two PSG matches and one involving Inter Milan.
He was in charge for the 1-0 PSG win over Liverpool at Anfield in the Round of 16, as well as PSG’s 1-0 road defeat at Bayern Munich which saw Ousmane Dembele sent off for a second yellow card. On the flip side, he was on the whistle for Inter’s 1-0 home win over Arsenal in the league phase, in which he awarded Inter a penalty just before halftime after Leandro Trossard fouled Lautaro Martinez.
In Champions League play this season, only three referees (Slavko Vincic, Michael Oliver, and Davide Massa) have officiated more than the seven games Kovacs has led. In those seven matches, Kovacs has shown 2.71 yellow cards per game, ranking him 21st of the 25 referees to have led four or more games in the competition. While he has whistled for the eighth-most fouls amongst those 25 referees, he has largely efforted to keep his cards in his pocket.
Who is VAR for Champions League final?
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the Champions League final is Dutch official Dennis Johan Higler.
Higler, 39, is a head referee in the Dutch Eredivisie, but he has been primarily a VAR throughout his career as a UEFA referee.
He has only officiated two Europa League matches as a head referee, but has been consistently named to Champions League referee crews as a replay official. He usually serves as part of an all-Dutch officiating crew helmed by Danny Makkiele, as UEFA often tries to keep nationalities together for ease of communication.
There is familiarity between Kovacs and Higler, who have worked together before in recent Champions League matches. They were paired for the second leg of Real Madrid’s knockout playoff victory over Man City, as Los Blancos won 3-1 at the Bernabeu to seal a place in the Round of 16.
Higler was in the spotlight earlier this season as he recommended a VAR review to head referee Szymon Marciniak in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal between Barcelona and Inter. He believed that Pau Cubarsi’s tackle on Lautaro Martinez was worthy of a penalty, sending Marciniak to the monitor where he changed his decision and awarded a spot-kick.
It felt harsh, but Martinez was rewarded for his shrewd body position, placing his foot between Cubarsi and the ball at the last moment to incite contact and keep the Barcelona defender from winning the ball cleanly.
