Artur Soares Dias has been appointed as the referee for tonight’s crunch Europa League semi-final against RB Leipzig at Ibrox.
The 42-year-old Portuguese has been a UEFA and FIFA licensed referee since 2010 and has demonstrable experience across UEFA’s continental competitions, referring across all three of the main club competitions.
At Euro 2020 he refereed Aaron Ramsey’s Wales in their 2-0 win over Turkey.
He has refereed two Champions League games and two Europa League games this season and had things been different, he could’ve been refereeing Rangers a lot earlier as he was the man in the middle for Malmo’s tie against Juventus in Sweden after the Swedes knocked Rangers out at the 3rd Qualifying Round stage.
He also officiated the shock result of the Europa League quarter-finals as he was in control for Frankfurt’s famous 3-2 victory over Barcelona in the Nou Camp and Rangers could face the Germans in the final if they overcome RB Leipzig.
The whistler has only refereed in Scotland once, ironically at Celtic Park as Celtic crashed out 3-1 to Copenhagen the Europa League Round of 32 in February 2020, a game that was famous for Copenhagen’s Michael Santos being arrested and charged by the police after jumping into the crowd.
